The Virgin and Child with St Anne

The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, painted in 1518 and held at the Gemäldegalerie Berlin, is one of Cranach’s most refined treatments of the Anna Selbdritt motif. The three-generational grouping of Anne, Mary, and the Christ child was painted during the peak of Cranach’s mature style, with smooth, luminous surfaces and carefully balanced composition. The Berlin Gemäldegalerie holds one of the world’s finest collections of Cranach paintings, reflecting the Prussian royal collections’ systematic acquisition of Saxon Renaissance art. This painting demonstrates the devotional warmth that Cranach brought to traditional Marian subjects during the period immediately before the Reformation transformed religious art in Protestant territories.

The panel shows Cranach's mature Wittenberg style with its distinctive sharp linear precision, decorative costume detail, and the elegant figure types that characterized his prolific workshop production.