St. Anne with Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus. 1480
Oil on oak
Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen - Alte Pinakothek München, inv. no: 1401

By Hans Memling (b. ca. 1435, Seligenstadt, d. 1494, Bruges)

This depiction of the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child and her mother, Anne, was originally part of the diptych ‘Madonna of the Rose Bower’ and forms the reverse of ‘St George with Donor’. Depictions of ‘The Virgin and Child with St Anne’ served the veneration of St Anne, who herself conceived Mary free from the original sin (immaculata conceptio). The artistic aspirations for this panel are less than those of the interior scenes.