Late Gothic Polychromed Sculpture of St Anne with the Virgin and Child (Anna Selbdritt)

Carved in pine and richly decorated with traces of its original gilding and polychromy, this substantial late Gothic sculpture represents St Anne with the Virgin and Child, a type known in German as Anna Selbdritt (“Anne herself the third”). The composition shows St Anne, mother of the Virgin, enthroned and veiled, supporting both her daughter, the young Virgin Mary, and the infant Christ upon her lap.
This iconography, widespread in Flanders and the Rhineland around 1480–1500, reflects the late medieval devotion to St Anne, whose cult was particularly strong in the Low Countries. She embodied both the sanctity of motherhood and the continuity of salvation history, linking the Old and New Covenants through her daughter and grandson. Such images were believed to promote intercession and to encourage family piety, especially among confraternities dedicated to St Anne.
The angular folds of the drapery, the compact composition, and the softly modelled faces place the work firmly within the Flemish late Gothic tradition, when sculptors combined monumentality with heightened intimacy of expression. The surviving gilding and colour, though worn, would once have heightened the devotional power of the group, catching the light of candles within a church or private chapel setting.