Carved and originally polychromed. An oblong hole penetrates the flat surface of the reverse side, into which a wrought-iron eye for securing purposes was once inserted.

A section of the backrest is missing. The polychromy has been removed.

…; from the collection E.A. Garnier-Heldewier, on loan to the museum, since 1877; from whom purchased by the museum, 1894; on loan to the Museum Krona (formerly known as the Museum voor Religieuze Kunst), Uden, inv. no. 4640, 1998-2004 and again since 2009

Object number: BK-NM-3315

In the late Middle Ages, carved groups of the Virgin and Child with St Anne (St Anne Trinity) were extremely popular in the Low Countries, where the iconography is known as St. Anna-te-Drieën.¹¹For the veneration of St Anne in the Low Countries and surrounding areas, see T. Brandenburg et al., Heilige Anna, grote moeder: De cultus van de Heilige Moeder Anna en haar familie in de Nederlanden en aangrenzende streken, exh. cat. Uden (Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 1992. The iconographic type forms, as it were, a concise manifestation of Christ’s descent via his mother’s family line, implicitly functioning as a visualisation of the theology of the Virgin’s immaculate conception. This sculpture is among other later examples, with the trio reflecting the atmosphere of everyday life, in which associations with family life also play a role. St Anne, who according to custom appears with a book in her hand, personifies the devotion of (grand-)motherhood, the wisdom that accompanies her age and her chaste lifestyle as a widow. She sits on a wide bench with decorated armrests and lays her hand on the shoulder of her daughter Mary, who sits at her feet while holding the naked Christ Child in her lap. In his enthusiasm, the restless child crumples a page of the book his grandmother holds before him. In addition to the informal interaction of three figures, the woodcarver has placed substantial emphasis on the ornately detailed drapery folds, which fan out over the bench.

A second version of this sculpture with virtually the same dimensions is preserved in the beguinage of Onze-Lieve-Vrouw Ter Hoye in Ghent (fig. a).²²M. Buyle and C. Vanthillo, Vlaamse en Brabantse retabels in Belgische monumenten, Brussels 2000, p. 176; N. Gliesmann, Geschnitzte kleinformatige Retabel aus Antwerpener, Brüsseler und Mechelener Produktion des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts: Herstellung, Form, Funktion, Petersberg 2011, no. 65. There is no doubt this piece was produced in the same workshop, where the same model was being used. The Ghent group functions as the central scene of a house altar, thus strengthening the surmise that the Amsterdam Virgin and Child with St Anne belonged to an altarpiece of a similar nature. It is also furnished with a layer of polychromy – albeit inferior and not original – whereas the painting on the present group has been removed. Additionally, the armrests of the bench on the Ghent piece are adorned with an angel playing a fiddle on the left and an angel with a lute on the right, which may indicate the Amsterdam piece as well featured these figures.

The Amsterdam group was initially seen as a work from the Southern Netherlands or the Lower Rhine region based on considerations of style.³³A. Pit, Catalogus van de beeldhouwwerken in het Nederlandsch Museum voor geschiedenis en kunst te Amsterdam, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1904, no. 42 (as ‘Southern Netherlands, mid-15th century)’; W. Vogelsang and M. van Notten, Die Holzskulptur in den Niederlanden, vol. 2, Das Niederländische Museum zu Amsterdam, Berlin/Utrecht 1912, no. 25 (as ‘Lower Rhine region, second half 15th century’); A. Pit, Catalogus van de beeldhouwwerken in het Nederlandsch Museum voor geschiedenis en kunst te Amsterdam, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1915, no. 222 (as ‘Southern Netherlands, second half 15th century’); D. Costa, Sainte Anne, exh. cat. Nantes (Musée Dobrée) 1966, no. 55 (as ‘Southern Netherlands’). Leeuwenberg and Van Liebergen situated this piece in the Northern Netherlands based on the everyday, domestic atmosphere.⁴⁴A. Pit, Catalogus van de beeldhouwwerken in het Nederlandsch Museum voor geschiedenis en kunst te Amsterdam, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1904, no. 42 (as ‘Southern Netherlands, mid-15th century)’; W. Vogelsang and M. van Notten, Die Holzskulptur in den Niederlanden, vol. 2, Das Niederländische Museum zu Amsterdam, Berlin/Utrecht 1912, no. 25 (as ‘Lower Rhine region, second half 15th century’); A. Pit, Catalogus van de beeldhouwwerken in het Nederlandsch Museum voor geschiedenis en kunst te Amsterdam, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1915, no. 222 (as ‘Southern Netherlands, second half 15th century’); D. Costa, Sainte Anne, exh. cat. Nantes (Musée Dobrée) 1966, no. 55 (as ‘Southern Netherlands’). At this time, however, both were as yet unaware that a second version existed.⁵⁵Gliesmann erroneously assumed the Ghent group was carved in walnut and described it as a work produced in Brussels, see N. Gliesmann, Geschnitzte kleinformatige Retabel aus Antwerpener, Brüsseler und Mechelener Produktion des 15. und 16. Jahrhunderts: Herstellung, Form, Funktion, Petersberg 2011, p. 278. In view of this group’s provenance in the beguinage in Ghent, an origin of production in the Southern Netherlands seems more probable. This provenance is confirmed by stylistic aspects such as the slender physical proportions of both Mary and St Anne, the refinement of their hands, their natural postures and the decorative arrangement of the folds of their robes. Because the style cannot be traced to any of the major woodcarving centres (Brussels or Antwerp) in the vicinity of Ghent, one may conclude that both retable groups were produced in a local Flemish workshop, possibly in Ghent itself.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024

D. Costa, Sainte Anne, exh. cat. Nantes (Musée Dobrée) 1966, no. 55; J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 99, with earlier literature; T. Brandenburg et al., Heilige Anna, grote moeder: De cultus van de Heilige Moeder Anna en haar familie in de Nederlanden en aangrenzende streken, exh. cat. Uden (Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 1992, no. 56; K.W. Woods, Imported Images: Netherlandish Late Gothic Sculpture in England c. 1400-c. 1550, Donington 2007, p. 384, note 2

B. van der Mark, 2024, 'anonymous, The Virgin and Child with St Anne, Southern Netherlands, c. 1480 - c. 1500', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200115862