Late Gothic Parcel-Gilt and Polychrome Carved Limewood Relief

Probably South German (Schwaben) or Austrian, 16th Century

Depicting Saint Anne with the Virgin and Child (ANNA SELBDRITT); carved in high relief and retaining extensive traces of gilding and polychromy, the devotional group composed of the veiled Saint Anne seated at the left, the crowned Virgin seated at the right holding an open book, and the Christ Child standing between them on a raised architectural plinth; on an integral rectangular base.

Height 11 inches (28 cm), width 10 1/2 inches (26.5 cm), depth 2 inches (5 cm).

The subject is the Anna Selbdritt, or Saint Anne with the Virgin and Christ Child, an iconography that enjoyed exceptional popularity in German-speaking lands around 1500. The three generations of Christ's maternal family are presented together as a devotional image emphasizing both Christ's humanity and the genealogy of the Virgin. The open book held by Mary alludes to her learning and piety. The compact, frontal arrangement, the matronly wimple of Saint Anne, the crowned Virgin, broad angular folds and extensive gilded surfaces are consistent with late Gothic sculpture from Southern Germany and adjacent Alpine regions in the opening decades of the sixteenth century.

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