ANNE, SAINT

Anne, Saint: translation

Saint Anne is the mother of theVirgin Maryand wife ofJoachim. She miraculously conceived her daughter at an advanced age. The story of Mary's conception is one of the subjects depicted in Giotto'sArena Chapelin Padua (1305) andTaddeoGaddi'sBaroncelli ChapelatSanta CroceinFlorence(1332-1338). In thesefrescoes, Anne meets her husband at the Golden Gate of Jerusalem and conceives miraculously when the two embrace. TheBirth of the Virginis also a popular subject in art and usually shows Anne reclining on her bed and midwives attending to the newborn.Examples includePietro Lorenzetti'sBirth of the Virgin(1342; Siena, Museo dell' Opera del Duomo),Vittore Carpaccio's version in the Carrara Gallery in Bergamo (c. 1504), andSimon Vouet's scene (c. 1620) in the Church of San Francesco a Ripa,Rome. Anne often appears at the side of her daughter and the Christ Child, as inLeonardo da Vinci'sMadonna and Child with St.Anne(c. 1508-1513) in the Louvre in Paris; inJacopo da Pontormo's of the same subject (c. 1529) executed for the Convent of St. Anne in Verzaia, just outside Florence (now Paris, Louvre); and inJusepe de Ribera'sHoly Family with Sts.Anne and Catherine of Alexandria(1648) at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.