School of Antwerp, circa 1520

With M. Glückselig & Son, New York, no. 1500 (according to a label on the reverse);
Anonymous sale ('The Property of a Gentleman'), London, Sotheby's, 2 November 2000, lot 12;
Anonymous sale ('The Property of a Lady'), New York, Christie's, 6 April 2006, lot 24.

According to the Golden Legend, St. Anne was married three times and by each marriage had a child called Mary, each of whom had children of their own. Here Anne is shown with her eldest daughter, the Virgin Mary and Jesus, while behind them stand her three husbands, Joachim, Cleophas and Salome, together with Mary's husband Joseph (holding the lily). Before them sit (on the left) Mary with her sons James the greater and John the Evangelist, and opposite her middle daughter with her four sons, James the Less, Joseph, Simon, and Jude. To the right kneels the female patron or donor, suggesting that this panel may have been a commission of the Poor Claires.

Though most probably south Netherlandish in origin, this panel has many stylistic affinities with contemporary northern Netherlandish painting, in particular the work of Jacob Cornelisz. van Oostsanen and his circle in Amsterdam.