353. The Wise Mother: SANTA ANA y NIÑA MARIA

 

St. Anne, (Sta. Ana) first appears in the apocryphal gospel of James in the 2^nd century.  The circumstances of her late motherhood echoes that of Hannah, the mother of Samuel, and the most important scene from her life story is her meeting with Joachim (Joaquin), at Jerusalem’s Golden Gate.

Sta. Ana is often shown with Maria—sometimes as an infant in her arms, or as a child teaching her how to read, an iconograhic representation made popular by the School of Caravaggio, a famed Italian painter, in beginning in the 17^th century in Rome. The image of “the wise mother giving instructions to her daughters”, however, was well-known even during the medieval times, and that the scene of Sta. Ana teaching Maria  from a book, was quite a popular scene in the art of Northern Europe from the early 14^th century to the Reformation. 

In a similar vein, representations of Sta. Ana follow the Western format—and extant devotional folk santos often depicts her with the young Maria—either seated or standing-showing an open book to her daughter. 

This outstanding antique Sta. Ana with Nina Maria, the child Mary, is one such example. The well carved figures of Sta. Ana (12 in.”) and Maria (9.5”) stand on a cloud base bringing the total height to 18 inches. The figures are blackened with patina but traces of paint remain on their clothing—Sta. Ana  is dressed in a red robe, yellow mantle with blue lining. She also wears a form fitting coif and wimple. 

Maria is in yellow, adorned with floral prints. Her long tresses are intricately defined with detailed carving. Both santos are shown with heavily lidded eyes, with Maria showing a ringed neck, dating the images to early 19^th century. 

There is reason to believe that the cloud base, on which two small cherubims are affixed,  is not original to the piece, as the peg holes do not exactly match those of the santo figures. 

The pedestal on which the cloud base stands is obviously a later addition, a tad too high for such santos. Similar crescent-shaped cloud bases are seen used in representations of the Blessed Virgin, but not on typical Sta. Ana images. Nevertheless, the base is also superbly carved.

In the Late Middle Ages, legend held that Sta. Ana was married three times: first to Joaquin, then to Clopas (Cleofas) and finally to a man named Solomas and that each marriage produced one daughter: Sta. Maria, mother of Jesus, Sta. Maria  Cleofe, and Sta. Maria Salome, respectively.

Sta. Ana is the patroness of unmarried women, housewives, women in labor or who want to be pregnant, grandmothers, mothers and educators.

 SOURCES:

Duchet-Suchaux G., Pastoureau M.,The Bible and the Saints: Flammarion Iconographic Guide, pp. 32-33

Sheingorn, Pamela. “The Wise Mother”; the Image of St. Anne Teaching the Virgin Mary, Vol. 32, No. 1 (1993), pp. 69-80 (12 pages), The University of Chicago Press, https://www.jstor.org/stable/767018