Statuette depicting St Anne, The Virgin Mary as a child and the Christ Child, walnut, painted and gilded, Belgium (Mechelen), ca. 1500-1520

St Anne, mother of the Virgin, stands, looking towards her right, supporting the young Mary, who in turn holds the Christ Child. St Anne wears a veil and wimple, typical of a widow of the late medieval period. The Virgin is represented as a young girl, with long hair. Her head was carved to accommodate a crown, now lost. The Christ Child reaches forward to play with the pages of the book, which St Anne holds. The right half of this book, and St Anne's forefinger and thumb were made separately, and are held in place with a wooden dowel. The back is flat, with a vertical groove, and has been left uncarved and largely unpainted. There is no Malines mark visible. There are two small holes on the underside of the group, presumably for fixing it to a separate socle.

Many similar small-scale devotional statuettes were exported from Mechelen, and sold on the open market during the first half of the 16th century. English customs records from 1509 probably refer to these imports, when listing the contents of a ship docking in London, including a basket with 14 wooden images, and a further 15 small wooden images. They were relatively inexpensive, and popular for private devotion in the home.
The triple group of St Anne with the Virgin and Child (Anna Selbdritt in Germany, Anna-te-Drieën in the Netherlands and Sainte-Filiation in France was a popular type in the late Middle Ages, celebrating the virtues of motherhood and female domesticity. Similar versions exist in Utrecht, Malines, Boulogne and Bruges, with closely comparable stylistic characteristics.

Here St Anne is shown standing, wearing a veil and wimple. She supports the young Virgin on her right arm, and Mary holds the Christ Child on her knees. The Child reaches forward to play with the pages of the book in St Anne's left hand. The sculptor made the right half of the book and St Anne's forefinger and thumb separately and then fixed them into place with dowelling. The Virgin's head has been cut back to take a crown, now missing. Sculptors in Malines (Mechelen, Belgium) frequently represented St Anne with the Virgin and Child in this way.

487-1895