Die Heilige Anna Selbdritt

Cornelis Engebrechtsz., the leading painter in Leiden before his pupil Lucas van Leyden surpassed him, created this Holy Family with Saint Anne (Anna Selbdritt) around 1500 for the Gemäldegalerie Berlin. The Anna Selbdritt motif, showing three generations of the Holy Family, was especially popular in Northern European devotion during the late fifteenth century. The oil medium allowed for rich tonal transitions and glazed layers of color that created luminous depth impossible with the older tempera technique.

The panel features Engebrechtsz.'s distinctive angular figure style and sharp drapery folds, with the expressive faces and vivid coloring that characterized the Leiden school before the more refined approach of Lucas van Leyden.