St. Anne with the Virgin and Child
ca. 1440
The Netherlands, Utrecht
MS M.917/945, pp. 292–293
Purchased on the Belle da Costa Greene Fund with the assistance of the Fellows, 1963
Catalog link
Wearing an old-fashioned wimple, the elderly Anne is enthroned with her daughter, Mary, who is seated at her feet holding baby Jesus. The page as a whole emphasizes genealogy: the three figures of the miniature are the ultimate flower of the vinelike Tree of Jesse that grows from that ancestor of the Savior sleeping in the bottom border. King David is shown at the left of Jesse and, at the right, what may be the lion of Judah. Twelve crowned heads represent Christ's subsequent royal ancestors.