Virgin and Child with Saint Anne

Virgin and Child with Saint Anne: Albrecht Durer

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Art Type: Oil Painting
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Albrecht Durer Oil Painting - Virgin and Child with Saint Anne

Work Overview: Virgin and Child with Saint Anne
Albrecht Durer
Date: 1519
Style: Northern Renaissance
Genre: religious painting
Dimensions: 49.8 x 60 cm
Medium: Oil on linden
Location: Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met), New York City, NY, US

This haunting devotional painting depicts Saint Anne, who was particularly venerated in Germany, with the Virgin and the Child. The motif of the sleeping infant, foreshadowing Christ’s death, was probably inspired by Giovanni Bellini, whose work Dürer admired during his sojourn in Venice. Anne’s hand on her daughter's shoulder takes on a consolatory meaning, and her distant gaze suggests a premonition of Christ's Passion. The model for Anne was Dürer's wife, Agnes, studied in a preparatory drawing signed and dated 1519 (Albertina, Vienna). Although this panel’s date and monogram were added later, the picture was likely painted in that year.

This haunting devotional painting depicts Saint Anne, who was particularly venerated in Germany, with the Virgin and the Child. The motif of the sleeping infant, foreshadowing Christ’s death, was probably inspired by Giovanni Bellini, whose work Dürer admired during his sojourn in Venice. Anne’s hand on her daughter's shoulder takes on a consolatory meaning, and her distant gaze suggests a premonition of Christ's Passion. The model for Anne was Dürer's wife, Agnes, studied in a preparatory drawing signed and dated 1519 (Albertina, Vienna). Although this panel’s date and monogram were added later, the picture was likely painted in that year.

This is a devotional image that Leonhard Tucher commissioned from Dürer. In 1628, it was offered by Gabriel III Tucher to Maximilian of Bavaria, who did not consider it to be an original. After having passed from collection to collection, it was acquired in 1910 by Benjamin Altmann, who donated it in 1913 to the museum in New York.

After having formerly been considered at times a copy, today the panel is generally held to be an original work of Dürer. The theme treated is often found in the altarpieces in Nuremberg, which are obviously of different scales and are solemn and monumental. Here the close and more familiar rapport the patron had with the requested painting led Dürer to prefer a more intimate interpretation.

Dürer's work is triangular in composition. St Anne, the mother of the Virgin, places her left hand on her daughter's shoulder, in a gesture of consolation. The youthful Mary worships the child, her hands together in silent prayer. The infant rests against St Anne. His expression suggests not only sleep, but death, as the two women seem to understand. A study survives of the half length figure of St Anne, probably based on Dürer's wife Agnes, then in her mid-forties. In the painting, St Anne's features have been softened and she appears younger. The picture was commissioned by Leonard Tucher, a member of the Nuremberg family whose portraits Dürer had painted earlier.

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Albrecht Durer

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