North Netherlandish, Utrecht, first quarter of 16th century

carved in high relief, St Anne seated on a low bench, her right arm around the crowned Virgin, standing to St Anne's proper right

The polychromy has been refreshed, there are some losses and general wear to the surface consistent with age. The book and the fingers of St. Anne's hand have been replaced. A section at the base has been added for support. There is a later section at the back of the head for support where there has been sonsiderable worming. There is worming visible throughout the group.
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The present delightful group of St Anne teaching the Virgin to read can be closely compared to another wood group in the collection of the Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht. The Catharijneconvent group portrays St Anne enthroned, with the seated Virgin at her feet holding the Christ Child. The features of the Virgin and St Anne with their cast-down heavily lidded eyes, eyelids outwardly up-turned, long straight noses and dimples tending down from the lips are very close to those depicted in the present group. The Catharijnconvent group is described as North-Netherlandish, Utrecht and the present group is probably by the same hand.

Whilst popular devotion to St Anne meant that depictions of the mother of the Virgin were numerous in the sixteenth century, it is rare to find a depiction which excludes the Christ Child. Groups including all three figures formed a kind of genealogy for Christ, comparable to a tree of Jesse. In the present group the artist has avoided the genealogy in favour of an intimate depiction of the relationship between mother and daughter. The details of the early life of the Virgin were written of in the apocryphal gospels, and include the story of her parents Joachim and Anne. The couple were childless until miraculous intervention, after St Anne prayed for a child, promising in return to dedicate the child to the temple. The feast of the presentation of the Virgin at the temple was celebrated in both the Roman and Orthodox churches. The emphasis on the Virgin's literacy – she is often depicted at the Annunciation interrupted in reading – was a reference to her temple education and St Anne's promise. Thus St Anne is frequently seen instructing her and the Christ Child in reading. Here the didactic iconography is infused with a familiarity and tenderness which gives the group a particularly appealing grace.

RELATED LITERATURE
M. van Vlierden, Hout-en steensculptuur van Museum Catharijneconvent ca. 1200-1600, (Utrecht, 2004) p. 226-7