SOUTHERN NETHERLANDISH, BRABANT, LATE 15TH CENTURY | SAINT ANNE

M. Gazan, Brussels;

private collection, Belgium

J. Boccador and E. Bresset, Statuaire Médiévale de Collection, Paris, 1972, p. 260, fig. 275

The present Saint Anne, with serious facial expression, cloaked in heavy drapery and wearing a cowled wimple with central fold, is of a type which gained currency in Brabant during the late 15th and early 16th century. Saint Anne, often depicted as part of an Anna Selbdritt composition where she is teaching the Christ Child, is depicted as the epitome of the wise older woman, usually shown holding a book. The treatment of the wimple, seeming almost overly large in relation to the face, is a further identifying motif of Saint Anne in Brabant wood sculpture. The deep, intricate folds of drapery, which sculptors managed to create from the sturdy oak, are proof of the dexterity of wood carvers in Brabant at the turn of the 15th century. Compare the present Saint Anne to the Anna Selbdritt with which it is paired in Boccador (op. cit. no. 274) and further to a Saint Anne, sold in these rooms, 9 July 2004, lot 12.