Castilian school; late fifteenth century. Lot n° 88

Castilian school; late fifteenth century. "Saint Anne, the Virgin and Child". Carved and polychrome wood. It has slight damage. Measurements: 93 x 50 x 25 cm. The iconography of Saint Anne with the Virgin and Child, also known as Saint Anne Triple, has its origin in the 14th century, and was conceived to glorify the saint as mother of Mary and grandmother of Jesus. In its beginnings, the representation of the subject evidences a remarkable frontalism and verticality, as we see in the example presented here, with the saint standing holding in her left arm a child-sized Mary, crowned and holding in her lap, in turn, a small Infant Jesus. Saint Anne touches the Virgin, and she at the same time the Son, in clear allusion to the Tree of Jesse or genealogical symbol of Christ. This iconography establishes, on the other hand, a correlation of cause and effect in the human, grandmother-mother-grandchild; and in the supernatural, Redeemer, God man: begotten by the Holy Spirit of a virgin mother, conceived in her turn without stain of original sin in Anne's womb. On the other hand, it is a representation of the Holy Family. In the most common sense of the expression, the Holy Family includes the closest relatives of the Child Jesus, that is, mother and grandmother or mother and nurturing father. In both cases, whether it is St. Anne or St. Joseph who appears, it is a group of three figures. From the artistic point of view, the arrangement of this terrestrial Trinity poses the same problems and suggests the same solutions as the heavenly Trinity. However, the difficulties are fewer. It is no longer a question of a single God in three persons whose essential unity must be expressed at the same time as diversity. The three personages are united by a blood bond, certainly, but they do not constitute an indivisible block. Moreover, the three are represented in human form, while the dove of the Holy Spirit introduces into the divine Trinity a zoomorphic element difficult to amalgamate with two anthropomorphic figures. In the iconographic type that presents St. Anne with the Virgin and Child, it is a Holy Family that groups three generations: grandmother, mother and child, and that in reality could be a separate fragment of Mary's kinship. Like the latter theme, it was a particularly widespread iconography in Germany and Central Europe, with examples being found from the 14th century onwards. However, it was in the 15th and 16th centuries that the theme became really popular, not only in Germanic countries but also in Italy and Spain. During these early centuries the representation of this theme followed a rigid scheme that included two possibilities: St. Anne holding the Virgin and Child on her lap, or the Child Jesus seated between his mother and grandmother. Some authors such as Leonardo Da Vinci already introduced a more naturalistic approach to the scene, but it will be in the Baroque when these schemes are definitely overcome in favor of a realistic, human and close representation. Spain was, during the 15th century and at the beginning of the 16th century, the European nation best prepared to receive the new humanist concepts of life and art due to its spiritual, political and economic conditions, although from the point of view of plastic forms, its adaptation of those introduced by Italy was slower due to the need to learn the new techniques and to change the taste of the clientele. Sculpture reflects perhaps better than other artistic fields this eagerness to return to the classical Greco-Roman world that exalts in its nudes the individuality of man, creating a new style whose vitality surpasses mere copying.