Swabia or Bavaria, circa 1510-1520 Saint Anne of the Trinity Gilded and polychromed wood fort-relief, hollow back H. 80 cm - L. 54.8 cm AL-EJ Accents, restorations, polychromy subsequently restored Related works: - Anonymous, Sainte Anne trinitaire, wood with traces of polychromy, circa 1500, H.40.5 cm, Landshut, Seligenthal Abbey; -Hans Leinberger, Sainte Anne trinitaire, circa 1505, basswood with traces of original polychromy, H. 87 cm, Münich, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum , inv. 75/156 ; -Hans Leinberger, Saint Mary Magdalene, Bavaria, c. 1520, basswood, H.166 cm, Munich, Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, inv. 13/303. -Daniel Mauch and workshop, St. Anne the Trinity, 1510-1515, St. Anne's Chapel, Steinbausen an der Rottum; -Workshop of Daniel Mauch, Trinitarian Saint Anne with Saints Joseph and Joachim, c. 1510-1515, high relief, size: 85 x 55 x 23 cm, Tomerdingen (Alb Donau-Kreis), Mariä Himmelfahrt church. Related literature -Baxandall, M. The Limewood Sculptors of Renaissance Germany, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1980 ; -Guillot de Suduirot, S., Sculptures allemandes de la fin du Moyen Age dans les collections publiques françaises 1400-1530, cat. exp., Paris, Musée du Louvre, 1991, pp.46-47 ; pp. 211-225 ; -Franz Niehoff, Vor Leinberger Landshuter Skulptur im Zeitalter der Reichen Herzöge 1393-1503, Band 2, Landshut, 2001, Notice 82, pp.482-483 ; -Rainer Kahsnitz, Carved Splendor: Late Gothic Altarpieces in Southern Germany, Austria and South Tirol, Getty Publications, 2006; -Brigitte Reinhardt, Daniel Mauch, Bildhauer im Zeitaltter der Reformation, Hatje Cantz, Cantz Verlag, 2009. Executed in Swabia or Bavaria at the beginning of the 16th century, this spectacular group of seated St. Anne carrying on each of her knees the Virgin Mary as child and Jesus illustrates an iconographic theme widely disseminated in late medieval times under the name of St. Anne Trinitarian. Although absent from the Holy Scriptures, Saint Anne's life is mentioned in the Protevangile of James (2nd half of the 2nd century). From the 13th century onwards, the saint's cult became extremely popular, based in particular on an account in James de Voragine's Golden Legend. Following the visions of St. Colette de Corbie in the 15th century, her representations multiplied, particularly that of a Trinita Humanissima in a hieratic relationship. Indeed, Jesus' grandmother plays a fundamental role in the conception of the Trinity: grouped with the Virgin and the Child Jesus, Anne acts as a counterweight to the divine Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. She is also part of a very feminine Trinitarian conception of the Holy Family, in which she takes the place of Joseph. Early depictions show the Virgin's Mother carrying her daughter, either seated on her lap or in her arms, mirroring the iconography of the Virgin and Child. The latter sometimes carries the Child in her arms, or enters into a relationship with him, seated on Anne's other knee or in her other arm, through gestures that create a close link between them (gift of a bunch of grapes, apple, book, etc.). Here, the Infant Jesus hands her the orb (symbolizing the eschatological scope of his earthly power) as if it were a ball, giving the group a dual reading: that of a charming everyday scene of two children playing on their mother's lap, and the doctrinal one of St. Anne in her matriarchal, protective role, invested in the cycle of Christ's Passion: With her eyes fixed and lost in thought, Christ's grandmother is deliberately distanced from the children's play; she seems to have a premonition of the child's destiny and role. This image crystallized in the 16th century through several variants in which the image of the saint dominates Mary and the Infant Jesus in terms of size and age. Some variants found regional appeal, such as the representation of St. Anne standing with the Virgin and Jesus in a jig, very popular in Brabant. At the turn of the 16th century, following the recognition of the feast of the Immaculate Conception by Pope Sixtus IV in 1476, the figuration of the Trinitarian Saint Anne enjoyed a new lease of life throughout southern Germany. It was adopted by the region's most famous artists, including Veit Stoss, Tilman Riemenschneider, Jörg Lederer and Klaus Weckmann. It was also particularly appreciated and disseminated in Swabia by the Ulm-based artist Daniel Mauch, and in Bavaria by Hans Leinberger, who established his workshop in Landshut, where a group carved around 1500 featuring this composition was already preserved at Seligenthal Abbey. The voluminous headdress formed by the veil, padded by a bead, was fashionable at the turn of the century.