The Virgin and Child, Saint Anne, and Saint Emerentia

The Virgin and Child, Saint Anne, and Saint Emerentia

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The seated group of the Virgin Mary, the Christ Child, and Saint Anne is the core of the Holy Kinship (in German, Anna Selbdritt, referring to three generations of the Holy Family). A favored subject in Germany, the theme was made popular by the widespread devotion to Saint Anne encouraged by lay devotional groups dedicated to her at this time. Such ensembles were often enlarged to include other saints. Here, the additional figure, standing at the back, depicts Saint Emerentia, the name given to the maternal grandmother of the Virgin Mary. The fragmentary inscription in Gothic letters across the base once identified each of the figures.

Medieval Art and The Cloisters

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Virgin and Child, Saint Anne, and Saint EmerentiaThe Virgin and Child, Saint Anne, and Saint EmerentiaThe Virgin and Child, Saint Anne, and Saint EmerentiaThe Virgin and Child, Saint Anne, and Saint EmerentiaThe Virgin and Child, Saint Anne, and Saint Emerentia

The Museum's collection of medieval and Byzantine art is among the most comprehensive in the world. Displayed in both The Met Fifth Avenue and in the Museum's branch in northern Manhattan, The Met Cloisters, the collection encompasses the art of the Mediterranean and Europe from the fall of Rome in the fourth century to the beginning of the Renaissance in the early sixteenth century. It also includes pre-medieval European works of art created during the Bronze Age and early Iron Age.