Carved and originally painted white. The wood blank is made from several different parts. The back has been hollowed out.

The accompanying figure of the young Virgin Mary is missing. Anne’s middle finger is missing, as are a corner of her book, part of her right shoe and part of the base. Two cracks, running along almost the entire length of the figure, have been filled. The original layer of white paint has been removed.

…; from the dealer J.J.Th.M. Bless, Lent (near Nijmegen), with BK-1954-39, fl. 7,000 for the two, to the museum, 1954

Object number: BK-1954-38

The woman, holding an open book, depicts St Anne, the mother of the Virgin Mary. With her extended right arm she makes a gesture towards her young daughter, who originally stood beside her. This iconography, known as the Education of the Virgin, came into fashion in the sixteenth century and is based on the Legenda Aurea, which describes Mary’s education. Despite objections from the church during the Council of Trent (1545-1563), this apocryphal story – and the veneration of Anne in general – was popular in counter-reformist circles until far into the eighteenth century. Another late-baroque Education of the Virgin (BK-1954-39) was acquired in 1954 at the same time as the present piece from the art dealer Bless.

In 1971 Theuerkauff was able to convincingly attribute the work, which had already correctly been localized in Brabant on stylistic grounds, to the Antwerp sculptor Pieter Scheemaeckers I (1652-1714).¹¹E. Rümmler, C. Theuerkauff et al., Europäische Barockplastik am Niederrhein: Grupello und seine Zeit, exh. cat. Düsseldorf (Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf) 1971, no. 260. Scheemaeckers trained with his uncle Pieter Verbruggen I (1615-1686) and started his own workshop in 1674.²²For biographical details and an overview of his work, see P. Philippot, D. Coekelberghs, P. Loze and D. Vautier, L’Architecture religieuse et la sculpture baroques dans les Pays-Bas méridionaux et la principauté de Liège: 1600-1770, Sprimont 2003, pp. 964-73, also A. Jansen and C. Van Herck, ‘Peeter Scheemaeckers: Antwerpsch beeldhouwer 1652-1714’, Antwerpen’s Oudheidkundige Kring, Jaarboek 17 (1941), pp. 129-88. The Rijksmuseum possesses two drawings by Scheemaeckers, one for a funerary monument, the other for an altar (RP-T-1987-29 and -30).³³M. Schapelhouman, ‘Beelden op papier: Notities bij een groep Zuidnederlandse beeldhouwerstekeningen uit de late barok’, Rijksmuseum Bulletin 38 (1990), pp. 123-41, esp. pp. 132-35. Scheemaeckers specialized in monumental assignments of like these, executed in wood as well as marble. His images of saints are characterized by their loose poses, expressive gestures and somewhat affected facial expressions: the same characteristics as evidenced in St Anne.

Theuerkauff compared the Amsterdam Anne figure with an Education of the Virgin in Herselt⁴⁴Herselt, Sint-Servatiuskerk, see KIK-IRPA, object no. 27233. and with the St Anne on Scheemaeckers’ altar in Aarschot (1684).⁵⁵Aarschot, Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk, see KIK-IRPA, object no. 3118; A. Jansen and C. Van Herck, ‘Peeter Scheemaeckers: Antwerpsch beeldhouwer 1652-1714’, Antwerpen’s Oudheidkundige Kring, Jaarboek 17 (1941), pp. 129-88, esp. fig. 138. In addition, in the statue of St Bridget (1699) in the St Antonius and St Bridget altar in Diest attributed to the same sculptor, he saw a good parallel with the somewhat softer pleating of St Anne’s robe.⁶⁶Diest, Sint-Sulpitius en Dionysiuskerk, see KIK-IRPA, object no. 13917; J. de Borchgrave d’Altena, Notes pour servir à l'inventaire des oeuvres d’art du Brabant: Arrondissement de Louvain, Brussels 1939-40, p. 200, table 29. However, the most striking similarities can be found in Scheemaeckers’ St John the Baptist altar dating from 1699/1700 in Averbode.⁷⁷Averbode, Sint-Jan-Baptistkerk, see KIK-IRPA, object no. 58339. The elderly Elisabeth in the Visitation group crowning this altar (fig. a) has the same striking facial features as St Anne, with large eyes, a pointed nose and a broad chin, as well as a similar, swelling abdomen which is outlined against the robe. Moreover, the women are positioned in a comparable contrapposto, with the right knee bent and arm outstretched to the right. The Amsterdam piece will have been made in the same period as the St John the Baptist altar, so about the turn of the century.

The wooden altar figures mentioned above have almost all been given a monochrome layer recalling marble, sometimes combined with gold. Traces of paint indicate that the irregular surface of the present work caused by various cracks and knots was originally also concealed beneath a layer of white paint. In view of its size, the group of the Education of the Virgin the figure once belonged to, may have been part of an altar ensemble, but could also have formed an independent piece set against a wall or a column.

Bieke van der Mark, 2025

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 347, with earlier literature; M. Maek-Gérard, Nachantike grossplastische Bildwerke, vol. 2, Italien, Frankreich, Niederlande, 1380-1530/40, coll. cat. Frankfurt am Main (Liebieghaus) 1981, p. 228

B. van der Mark, 2025, 'attributed to Pieter (I) Scheemaeckers, St Anne, from an Education of the Virgin, Antwerp, 1700', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20035792