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Madonna and Child with Saint Anne
Historical Context
Madonna and Child with Saint Anne, painted in 1510 and held at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, is an Anna Selbdritt composition showing three generations of the Holy Family. The painting’s journey to an American museum reflects the extensive dispersal of German Renaissance art to the United States during the twentieth century. Cranach’s treatment of this popular devotional subject combines the tenderness of a family portrait with the theological significance of the Holy Family’s role in salvation history. The Anna Selbdritt was among the most requested devotional subjects in Cranach’s early workshop, reflecting the late medieval cult of Saint Anne that remained strong until the Reformation curtailed popular devotional practices.
Technical Analysis
The panel shows Cranach's characteristic treatment of the maternal grouping with gentle expressions, warm palette, and the intimate scale appropriate to devotional meditation on the holy family.
Look Closer
- ◆Notice this Anna Selbdritt panel in an American collection: the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts holds this three-generational devotional image.
- ◆Look at the gentle expressions Cranach gives to Anne, Mary, and the Christ child: the warmth of a three-generational family gathering rendered in his elegant manner.
- ◆Find the compositional integration of all three figures: Anne's maternal protection encompassing both daughter and grandchild.
- ◆Observe the 1510 date: an early version of this subject Cranach would return to throughout his career.
