St Anne with the Virgin and Child
- Object:
- Place of origin:
Flemish, Belgium (probably, made)
- Date:
ca. 1500- ca. 1510 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
- Materials and Techniques:
- Museum number:
- Gallery location:
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No one is yet certain about the origins of this relief. It shows St Anne on the right with a veiled head. The Virgin Mary is on the left. She is bareheaded, although the top of her head is cut back to take a crown. The Chirst Child stands between them in a long robe. The detailed carving of the back and sides of the throne suggest that this sculpture was not made as part of an altarpiece. It was probably intended to stand alone as a single religious image. The sculpture had been split down the middle vertically and was repaired by the V&A when they bought it.
The Museum thought the sculpture was English and dated it to around 1500. However, in an exhibition catalogue of 1973, a writer suggested that the sculpture came from the Lower Rhine or Flanders about 1500. He suggested that the piece had either been imported, or made by a Continental carver working in East Anglia. This uncertainty reflects the difficulties experts have in identifying wood sculptures that were made in England in the years 1450-1540. Many such sculptures were burnt during the Reformation, when Protestants destroyed what they saw as Roman Catholic images. Even pieces that have a long and reliable record in an English setting may have been imported.
Physical description
St Anne is shown on the right with veiled head, the Virgin bareheaded on the left, and the Christ Child standing between them in along robe. St Anne and the Virgin are seated on a wide bench.
Place of Origin
Flemish, Belgium (probably, made)
Date
ca. 1500- ca. 1510 (made)
Artist/maker
unknown (production)
Materials and Techniques
Carved oak
Dimensions
Height: 49.5 cm, Width: 40.5 cm
Object history note
Bought from Mr G.J. Jennings, Walberswick, near Southwold, Suffolk, for £30, in 1911. Said at the time of acquisition 'to have come from a church near Colchester some way back in the last century' (note by E. Maclagan in the museum papers). this has been modified by the time the group was published in the following year to 'acquired in Essex, where it is said to have been found in a farmhouse'.
Historical significance: There is quite a difficulty within the attribution of wood sculptures to England in the years 1450-1540, as very little English wood sculpture survived the bonfires of the Reformation, and even works with reliable and extended provenances in England may be imports. with this sculpture here the closest parallels appear to be with Brabantine, probably Brussels, works.
Historical context note
The detailed carving of the back and sides of the throne would seem to indicate that the sculpture was not meant for insertion in an altarpiece, as were most comparable examples. It was probably intended instead to stand alone as a single devotional image
Descriptive line
Relief statuette, oak, St Anne with Virgin and Child, probably Brabant, ca. 1500-1510
Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)
Williamson, Paul, Netherlandish Sculpture 1450-1550, London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 2002. 160p., ill. ISBN 1851773738.
Materials
Oak
Subjects depicted
Mary (Virgin Mary); Christianity; The Christ Child; Bench; Anne (Saint); Linen-fold
Categories
Sculpture; Religion; Christianity; Children & Childhood
Collection code
SCP
