Saint Anne with the Christ Child, the Virgin, and Saint John the Baptist
Hans Baldung Grien·c. 1511
Historical Context
Baldung Grien's Saint Anne with the Christ Child, the Virgin, and Saint John the Baptist from around 1511 depicts the extended holy family — Christ's grandmother Anne, his mother Mary, and his cousin the Baptist — in a devotional grouping that reflected the enormous popular cult of Saint Anne in Germany during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. The cult of Saint Anne reached its peak around 1500-1520, fueled by theological controversy about her conception of Mary and expressed in devotional brotherhoods, church dedications, and a flood of artistic commissions. Baldung had been Dürer's most gifted pupil in Nuremberg before establishing his own practice in Strasbourg, and his figure types reflect his master's influence while developing his own more sensuous and expressive manner.
Technical Analysis
Originally on panel and transferred to hardboard, the painting shows Baldung's vivid, saturated colors and distinctive blend of devotional warmth with a slightly uncanny quality. The precise draftsmanship reflects his training under Dürer, while the rich, glowing palette is entirely his own.
Provenance
Church of the Order of Saint John in Jerusalem, Grünen Wörth, near Strasbourg, c. 1511 until probably c. 1633, and later in the Order's church in the cloister of Saint Marx, Strasbourg, probably c. 1687 until at least 1741.[1] Village church, Alsace; acquired shortly after 1870 by Dr. Georges-Joseph Wimpfen [d. 1879], Colmar; by inheritance to his daughter, Marie Emélie Jeanne Siben [d. 1951], Paris and Zimmerbach, near Colmar.[2] (Fritz Frankhausen, Basel), 1952;[3] (Rosenberg & Stiebel, New York), by 1953; purchased 1953 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[4] gift 1961 to NGA. [1] Gert von der Osten. "Ein Altar des Hans Baldung Grien aus dem Jahre 1511 -- und eine Frage nach verschollenen Werken des Malers." _Zeitschrift des deutschen Vereins für Kunstwissenschaft_ 31 (1977), 52-53, cites two sets of documents. The first, Archives départementales du Bas-Rhin, Strasbourg, no. H2158, are records of payment in the accounts of the Order of Saint John, under the heading, "Uff die Kirch": "It. X G(ulden) meister Hans baldung dem maler vff die tafel zu malen. It. XIIII G(ulden) meister Hans baldung dem maler von dem fur altar zu malen." The second, Archives départementales du Bas-Rhin, Strasbourg, no. H2232, is the 1741 manuscript by "F. Francisco Josepho Ignatio Goetzman, Ermelten Hausses Custode,"_Inventarium über Alle des Ritterlichen St. Johann Ordens Hauses in Strassburg Custorey-oder Kirchen Schatz_, page 149, no. 26: "Item Ein gleiche, worauf S. Anna B. V. und S. Johannes Bapt. pelle indutus in erwaxenem alter, auch in der Sacristy ober dem Kirchfass." The second inventory (1741) describes three separate paintings as hanging in the sacristy of the church and these can be convincingly identified with _The Mass of Saint Gregory_ (Cleveland Museum of Art), the _Saint John on Patmos_ (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York), and the _Saint Anne with the Christ Child, the Virgin, and Saint John the Baptist_ (NGA). These three paintings were originally part of a larger alterpiece, which was probably dismantled in the 1630's, during the disruption at Grünen Wörth. It needs to be pointed out that during the Thirty Years' War the order at Strasbourg lost its buildings and in 1633 the church in Grünen Wörth was pulled down, and its contents apparently put in storage. In 1687 the order moved into the cloister of Saint Marx in Strasbourg where it remained until the French Revolution. [2] François-Georges Pariset. "Deux Oeuvres inédites de Baldung Grien." _Gazette des Beaux-Arts_ 6e per. 11 (1934), 13-14; Christian Heck, Musée d'Unterlinden, Colmar, letter of 10 June 1985 to Guy Bauman, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, copy in NGA curatorial files, is the source for full names and death dates. [3] Gert von der Osten. _Hans Baldung Grien. Gemälde und Dokumente_. (Berlin, 1983), 68; memorandum by Guy Bauman in NGA curatorial files, of telephone conversation, 3 June 1985, with Gerald Stiebel. [4] See The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1793.
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