The Wise Mother: The Image of St. Anne Teaching the Virgin Mary

13 Pages·4.739 MB·English

by  Sheingorn P.

"The Wise Mother": The Image of St. Anne Teaching the Virgin Mary
Author(s): Pamela Sheingorn
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Gesta, Vol. 32, No. 1 (1993), pp. 69-80
Published by: International Center of Medieval Art
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/767018 .
Accessed: 18/06/2012 02:56
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
International Center of Medieval Art is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to
Gesta.
http://www.jstor.org
"The Wise Mother":
The of St. Anne the
Image Teaching Virgin Mary*
PAMELA SHEINGORN
Baruch College and GraduateC enter, City Universityo f New York
Abstract Anne persuaded him to wait until her daughter was three.
By investigating the history of the late medieval The scene of the tiny child ascending the steep and formi-
image of St. Anne Teaching the Virgin Mary, I show dable steps of the Temple while the anxious parents look
that this image should be associated with female liter- on, became a favorite in the pictorial arts.5 According to
acy, and specifically with the role of mothers as teach- later versions of the story, for example, the Mary Play from
ers of their daughters. I suggest that representations of the N.town Manuscript, Mary recited a psalm for each of
women with books in medieval art have been over-
looked, so that their implicationf or female literacy has the fifteen steps.6
been neglected. After the Presentation in the Temple, the Protevange-
lium moves immediately to Mary's twelfth year, the year of
her marriage to Joseph. The only mention of her accom-
In her Book of the Three Virtues, Christine de Pizan plishments is a comment that she could spin and weave.
wrote, "the wise mother will give great attention to the up- She was occupied with these activities when the angel of
bringing and instruction of her daughters," and clearly in- the Annunciation appeared to her, and was so represented
cluded literacy among the areas of instruction.' This paper in art until the eleventh century. At about this time, con-
argues that although in the late Middle Ages Christine's comitant with the growth of Mary's cult, the idea developed
statement was virtually a truism, modern scholarship, by fo- that because she was Mother of God, Mary must have been
cusing on the education of male children, has neglected this both spiritually and intellectually gifted. Byzantine sermons
aspect of medieval culture.2 Yet there is significant evi- from the eighth to tenth centuries described her as possess-
dence for female literacy, especially visual evidence, in the ing the wisdom of Athena, and one version of the Pseudo-
scene of St. Anne teaching her daughter from a book, a Matthew claims: "No one could be found who was better
scene quite popular in the art of Northern Europe from the instructed than she (Mary) in wisdom and in the law of
early fourteenth century to the Reformation, and in Catholic God, who was more skilled in singing the songs of David
countries until modern times. I explore several readings of (Psalms)."7I n the thirteenth century Albert the Great taught
the scene, and in particular I argue that it promulgated the that Mary had been a master in the Seven Liberal Arts.8 It
notion of mothers as teachers and daughters as apt and will- is not surprising, therefore, to find that in Annunciation
ing pupils, just as it celebrated literacy, especially among scenes Mary's spindle was replaced by a book.9 In some
upper and middle class women. renditions the book is open to Isaiah 7:14-"Behold a
Though well known in the Middle Ages, St. Anne's virgin shall conceive and bear a son." The idea that Mary
story does not appear in the canonical Gospels. She is, was reading this especially appropriatet ext was spread, for
however, an important figure in the apocryphal Protevange- example, by Nicholas Love's translation into English of
lium of James and texts deriving from it, for example, the the popular devotional text, the Meditationes vitae Christi.
Pseudo-Matthew.3 Written about 150 A.D., the Protevange- Love wrote that Gabriel appeared "before the virgine
lium tells the story, familiar from Giotto's frescoes in the Marie, that was in here pryue chaumbure that tyme closed
Arena Chapel, of Joachim's sacrifice, rejected because he & in hir prayeres, or in hire meditaciones perauenturr edyng
and his wife Anne had no children, of their sorrow turned to the prophecie of ysaie, touchyng the Incarnacion."'"
joy by angelic visitation, and of the angel's message that It was, of course, possible that Mary was literate when
they would become parents.4A nne responded at once to the she was born, but a natural assumption in the Middle Ages
angel, saying, "As the Lord my God lives, if I bear a child, was that she was taught in the Temple, just as children
whether a male or female, I will bring it as a gift to the Lord were taught in contemporary monastic schools. Thus
my God, and it shall serve him all the days of its life" (4.1). stained glass from the beginning of the thirteenth century in
Of course Anne did bear a child, a female child. According Chartres Cathedral shows a schoolroom scene in which
to the Protevangelium, when Mary was two years of age, Mary and four other pupils sit before their teacher, and
Joachim wanted to "bring her up to the temple of the Lord, fourteenth-century glass in the Frauenkirche at Esslingen
that we may fulfill the promise which we made" (7.1), but depicts Mary after her Presentation as a solitary student in
GESTAX XXII/1 ? The InternationalC enter of Medieval Art 1993 69
! i sIi i
! ?......
IT
rM
-:i!r-:iiii ii- i::i::i:i: :?-:-:' ii-ii-i:i-ii-i-i: ii -:-:
i-iii?i:-:iiiii---iii iis -iii ii ,-ii ii:i ::- i :-_ _-_j::-:::_-i::l:::--?:::- -::::_::: i:_:::-:::::: :: : :. : : :- liii i , -i
iiii.ii.ii :-:: ::.:?:: ?::::
J9?
In,
MAT
WN,
low"
...........
AM
a WWI El
--MMU, vow '.., j j.. ?X.
FIGURE 2. St. Anne Teaching the Virgin Mary from an opus anglicanum
altar frontal, ca. 1320-40, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1828-1863
(photo: Courtesy of the Board of Trustees of the V&A).
the Temple comes before her education by her mother, an
inconsistency that seems not to have troubled the embroi-
FIGURE 1. Nativity and Virgin Mary at School, Oxford, Bodleian Ms
Douce 185, fol. 35v, ca. 1325-1350 (photo: Bodleian Library). derers. The same illogical sequence can be found in early
fourteenth-century English wall painting at Croughton,
which implies that Anne continued to teach her daughteru p
the Temple, beginning to learn her Psalter with verse one to the very moment that her father Joachim led her off to
of the first Psalm. A historiated initial showing Mary as a be married.12 In an apparently unique solution, fourteenth-
member of a class of girls taught by a schoolmaster deco- century stained glass from the choir of Orvieto Cathedral
rates a book of sermons made for a house of Cistercian places the scene of Anne's teaching of Mary inside the
nuns in the diocese of Constance between 1325 and 1350 Temple; as a result its position after the Presentation is not
(Fig. 1). The choice of subject suggests the possibility that so jarring.
the designer of the book saw some parallel between Mary's There are not many other attempts to integrate the
experience and that of the nuns. scene of Anne's teaching into pictorial treatments of the
In the face of expansion of the Marian narrative con- Marian narrative,w hich usually move directly from the Pre-
sistent with the apocryphal accounts it is particularly strik- sentation in the Temple to the events surroundingt he Wed-
ing to find development in another direction, namely that of ding of Mary and Joseph. But in devotional contexts the
Mary's mother Anne as her teacher. Such scenes occur first scene not only survives but flourishes (Fig. 3). In fact, it
in England, early in the fourteenth century, in wall paint- serves as the major devotional image of Anne, who is virtu-
ing, stained glass, sculpture, embroidery, and manuscript il- ally never represented alone, but rather with her daughter
lumination."1A n embroidered altar frontal of about 1320 to and her book. This grouping implies that Anne's act of
1340 presents one typical format with both figures standing teaching carries singular importance, as does the fact that
(Fig. 2). The directed gazes, open book, and Anne's gesture the book is virtually always open. Though a book appears
all indicate that here the mother acts as teacher. In the se- with great frequency as an attribute of sacred figures, it is
quence of scenes on the frontal the Virgin's presentation in more often closed.
70
serves that "In wall-painting, the subject of St. Anne teach-
..... . .. . ing the Virgin may sometimes form part of a 'history', but
more frequently appears either singly or beside an Annun-
............. .. .. . .... . .. . . . ciation."'4 The Annunciation and Education of the Virgin
..... ....i .i.i..i. ...._..: : scenes are paired on a rare surviving English panel painting
... .. . of about 1335 now in the Cluny Museum. David Park com-
. .. .. .. .. . ments: "Iconographically, these subjects form a perfect foil,
both emphasising the special role of the Virgin in God's de-
sign.""5O n the altar frontal, the book is open to the passage:
"Audi filia et vide et inclina aurem tuam, quia concupuit rex
... ..... speciem tuam" (Listen, daughter, and see, and incline your
.....l ... ... ... ... . ear, for the king desires your beauty), a variant of the Vul-
:i ,:ii............ . gate text of Psalm 44: 11-12. Christian exegesis has placed
these words in the mouth of Christ as bridegroom and has
... ...... understood them as addressed most generally to the Chris-
tian soul, more specifically to virgins, and most specifically,
as here, to Mary. As David Park observes, " . . . the Vulgate
text has been altered so as to place the emphasis directly on
the divine choice of Mary to be the bride of Christ. St. Anne
points deliberately at the word rex . . . The text thus pre-
figures the moment of the Annunciation which was depicted
at the other end of the panel, when Mary, through her sub-
mission to the divine word, enabled God's redemptive plan
to be brought to fulfilment."'6
The specific understandingo f the scene of Anne teach-
. ........... ing the Virgin Mary in terms of Incarnationh istory can also
be generalized, as Gertrud Schiller suggests. She sees the
book in these scenes as a symbol for Christ, the Logos, the
Word.'7 And this reading is substantiated by the rise of an-
other subject in the late Middle Ages, that of the St. Anne
Trinity, that is the grouping of Anne, her daughter Mary
and her grandson, Jesus, as an infant (Fig. 4). The two sub-
jects, Anne teaching the Virgin Mary and the St. Anne
Trinity, can be seen as two somewhat different embodi-
ments of the same idea-that of the Incarnation. I have
FIGURE 3. St. Anne Teaching the Virgin Mary. Westminster Abbey, argued elsewhere that, whereas the traditional Trinity of
Chapel of Henry VII, ca. 1502-1512 (photo: Royal Commission on the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost emphasizes Christ's divinity
Historical Monuments of England).
and immortality, the St. Anne Trinity, especially in the
compositional arrangement where it replicates a popular
The devotional image of Anne teaching the Virgin way of representing the traditional Trinity (Fig. 5), empha-
Mary flourishes in spite of a virtual, if not total absence of sizes the lineage of Christ's physical body.'8 The matrilin-
textual sources. In medieval iconography this is quite un- eal Trinity is the Trinity of the Incarnation.
usual, for it is common practice to trace an image to autho- But St. Anne and the Virgin Mary had roles in con-
rized sources and to explain its details through references temporary medieval society in addition to their places in
to exegesis and commentary. The very existence of such a Incarnation history, a fact that some scholars have tended
scene, floating free of a textual anchor and surfacing in a to ignore or misunderstand. Stephan Beissel, for example,
variety of contexts, suggests that it performed important states that when the group of Anne teaching the Virgin does
symbolic functions in late medieval cultural practices. It is not include the Christ Child, it "reveals in this omission a
these contexts and functions that we need to understand. sharp decline from the older and deeper meaning, in which
One such context is Incarnation history. In his book on Jesus was always the purpose and goal."'9 According to
the garb and attributes of saints in German art, Joseph Beissel, with the exclusion of the Child Jesus the group
Braun explains that St. Anne's book "is to be understood comes very close to a genre scene. By setting up a false di-
here as the book of the Old Testament, in which the Messiah chotomy between high theological meaning and genre scene,
was promised to humankind.... '3 E. W. Tristram ob- Beissel suppresses the cultural functions of hagiography in
71
. . .. .ix . i ?iiitiii iiii(cid:127)ii(cid:127)!i?jiif.ti::i iiiii-'iii:ii'i i?ii!?(cid:127)'!! i~!(cid:127)i '!! i ?~(cid:127)iiii(cid:127)i!~i i (cid:127)(cid:127) i!Ui(cid:127) i ? l?!(cid:127) (cid:127) ,!(cid:127) ii?i~ ,i i~ii
1.., 0:
rX.?INN ::::
..... . . . . . .
oiii
W?iii- :
FIGURE 4. (right) St. Anne Trinity, i:igA::ij:
South German, late fifteenth to ?.6:ji
early sixteenth century, Philadelphia
Museum of Art, '64-140-1 (photo:
Philadelphia Museum of Art).
FIGURE 5. (far right) Master of
Frankfurt, St. Anne with the Virgin
and the Christ Child, Washington, iiiiiiiiV.
National Gallery of Art; Gift of ..:.-.; I:N.:-:s-:Ko:iv:: :: :i:::i:I:::;:::::::::::-:::::
Mr. and Mrs. Sidney K. Lafoon,
1976.67.1 (2071) (photo: National
Gallery).
the late Middle Ages. From the perspective of Incarna- The question of Anne's attributes is a good place to
tion history as understood by the twentieth-century scholar, begin. Joseph Braun, who categorizes St. Anne's attributes
Anne's role may be limited to grandmothero f Christ, mother in terms of her postures, lists four possibilities.21 The first
of the Virgin, and she may have existed only to fill a place is a book, although I know of no examples in which Anne
in a genealogical chart, the end goal of which was the Incar- is shown alone with a book. Second, according to Braun,
nation. But in late medieval culture Anne was not confined Anne may have a figure of the child Mary on her arm. The
to the historical past-she was a powerful presence. As earliest known image of Anne in the West, that painted
Kathleen Ashley and I wrote in the introduction to Inter- on the west wall of the presbytery in the Roman church
preting Cultural Symbols: Saint Anne in Late Medieval So- of Santa Maria Antiqua in about 650, presents Anne in
ciety, the essays gathered in that book "show that the figure this way, as does the early thirteenth-century trumeau at
of Saint Anne functioned symbolically for a wide range of Chartres. But these are among the rare examples of Anne
social groups in their cultural practices. She represented the and Mary without a book. Third, says Braun, Anne may
cult of the family to gentry and aristocracy. She was called be accompanied by Mary holding Jesus on her lap, and
on by individual women as a sympathetic intercessor in fourth, Anne may hold Mary on one arm and Jesus on
childbearing. She bore a metaphorical relation to a number the other. Braun is firmly convinced that "The third and
of crafts, such as woodworking, and was therefore their fourth attributes, which ruled the field at that time, ren-
appropriate patron. She exemplified affective behaviors to dered the book superfluous."22I f the interpretationo f the
nuns in a convent."20 Nor does this exhaust the list of her scene is restricted to a statement about the Incarnation,
functions, for we need to add the cultural function of the then, strictly speaking, Braun is correct; the book and the
grouping Anne, Mary, and book. Christ Child both refer to the Word, the Logos, the second
First I will demonstrate the hitherto unrecognized person of the Trinity, and the presence of both creates a
function of this grouping as the core around which other redundancy. But the numerous examples of St. Anne with
scenes were built. Though I have organized this material in Mary who holds her child Jesus in which one or more
terms of increasingly complex composition, this is for the books feature prominently (Fig. 6), suggest that the book
sake of convenience and is not meant to be an implicit ar- had another function in the minds of artists and their pa-
gument for a specific line of development. trons. More recent scholars than Braun have found the
72
category of St. Anne Trinity sufficient for such works of art i:!i:ii iii ~ i:ii,ii i~ i~i ii~iii ~ iiii~iiiii~ii! ii :i:i!:ii(cid:127) iiii! i !iii :(cid:127)iiiiiiiiiii i iiiiii:iiiiii!iiiiiiii:iii -iiiiiii!iii!iiiiiii!iii(cid:127)i iiiiiiiiiiiiiii(cid:127)iiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiii(cid:127)!iiiiii:i:i!iiiiiiii:ii ii iiii! i i(cid:127)!iiiii(cid:127)!iii!ii !iiii:i! iiiiii!iii(cid:127)i !iii(cid:127)iii(cid:127)ii !i iiiiiiiiiii:iiiii(cid:127)iiiiii.i(cid:127)ii iiiii ii:iiiiii
and have tended not to explore, or even mention, the pres-
epnocine t oinf tah eb ocookm. pYoseitt iothne. Ibno oonke ittyseplef , oAfntenne saepepmeas ras tofo ncae-l : - - i!i !iiiiii.!ii (cid:127)!.(cid:127)(cid:127)i ii- i!ii! i !i iiiiiiiiiiiii.i i i (cid:127) _iii ii iiiii.i~~.i.iii : , : ::: .::. .. - : .... :- :~ i x::~~'~riL~ E~:~ :i ~ ii iii ii-iiiiiiitiii
glect her grandson in order to pursue her reading, as in an i i i ...:..i ..- ::.: _ii-iii iiii
:iii!~iiiii(cid:127)i~iiiii!ii~~iiii~iiii!ii iiiiiii! !iiiii i~iii-~iii~ii iii-iiiiii~iii:i i:iii iiiiiiii iii-iii
English manuscript of about 1400 (Fig. 7) and in another,
Mary is engrossed enough in her reading lesson to ignore
her son's bid for her attention (Fig. 8).23 Braun is so little
iiii_i i_ ii iiiiiiiil
attuned to the significance of the book in this scene that
he goes on to argue that in the type of composition in ..,..... i. . -.. ..:i i ::-:. - -. -- : .- :: : :::i:-:~~ -i i~ii~i~ i . -::- : :i-~i:
which Anne holds Mary on one arm and Jesus on the other
a book could not possibly appear since both of Anne's
hands are already engaged. Again his logical argument is
contradicted by surviving evidence, for both Veit Stoss
and Tilman Riemenschneider found satisfying solutions to
this compositional conundrum (Fig. 9).24 As Hanswernfried
Muth notes, in Riemenschneider's sculpture Mary is "ganz
in das Studium ihres Buches versunken."25O f course there
are examples of the St. Anne Trinity that do not include a
i.i.i.i
book, but scholarly emphasis has fallen on one extreme to ...................... ........................
such an extent that it has not adequately dealt with the kind
of image like the painting of the St. Anne Trinity by Cor-
nelisz van Oostsaamen, in which the figures of Mary and
Christ shrink in significance beside the book to which
_ii~ii~i! iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii~
Anne directs her gaze (Fig. 10).
The Holy Kinship, the grouping of Anne with her
three daughters, their fathers, husbands, and sons, is usu-
ally described as deriving compositionally from the subject
of St. Anne Trinity.26T hus it is no surprise that frequently,
though not always, books are present, not only as attributes
of Anne and/or Mary, but also in the hands of many mem-
bers of this apparently scholarly clan.
FIGURE 6. (above) St. Anne Trinity, Lower Rhine,
early sixteenth century, Aachen, Suermondt-Ludwig-
Museum (photo: Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum).
FIGURE 7. (far left) St. Anne Trinity, Oxford, Bodieian
:: hq'i' MS Aubrey 31, fol. 31, ca. 1400 (photo: Bodleian
':
...............iL'": ................ .. ... i 7)?l::..: Jcian (cid:127) ::(cid:127)(cid:127)i:(cid:127) Library).
i-- FIGURE 8. (left) St. Anne Teaching the Virgin Mary in
? ' : :(cid:127)(cid:127) the Presence of the Christ Child, Metz, Bibliothhque-
~P1;9~%1ll~i s~~~ss %-in.: mddiathhque 620, fol. lv (photo.: Bibliothhque-
mddiatheque).
::K' r-
:1
73
:-::--::: - :': ::::
::--:- :::::-:--:- :::--:--::-:--::-:::- --: -.--i ---.::i :ii-i-_ji.-:-:i::_i :. -:- -:.:i i.::::i -_-::i ----i-:ii:::,:-:ij:-:ii:- ii:i~::::iii::i,:j :;-ii :i:i--:--ii:j:ii i.iii-ii- _--i -iiiii:_.i::ii:_i:iii -i:ii--e:-i-iii::-i._ii:-:-: iiii:i:-:i-:i:i-:i--j:ii - :ii-i:i:-: i:i3' -i~~j:\ii-:3 ii~-:-ii: i::~-iii::~-iii i:::iiii~j.~i-j~~iiiiiiiji:iisii i i :i--iiei~i~iiiiiiii iiii.i:-.::i -i
: - ii:i- i: --: -.i:: :.:::- :i:ii:::--l i i:i:l -- i:l-- :---l i:i-i i l-::- ii:-~li_::i::---:i:: :-::,:-_--:-:- :i:::-i--: :::__ :-i--- ii::--:--:.--i--;'---:-- : :----:--l:ii -,-::::_i.i-.-_-i- : .:-i-i-i--'i.:-: ::--:ii -::--: :. ii::-.::. '-:.iii.:-:---''-_:.:i-:::-- --.-i:-: i-:i:: 1i--:.:_-~ ::-i:-:-._::ii:-:i : i:-'i:::~ -i i ii:--- ~-:i i- ii::i:----::il:::: :-i-:i:i--l'i---i:i--_~i:--~1.:i:-i--ii i-ir i-ii--:i'i--i;i-i-i-:i_:i:--ii;i -li--:'i:i-ii:~:_i-:i-:ii-i: :::-i i_~i:- :i-i i:i:1-:::ii:~ :;ii- ~:_i: :'--:ii.:i-li--i :;i:i_:-i ii:-:?i ---i-iii:i-i-i_i il -i-:: - ::iil:i ~iiii~iiiiiih~~i~-iii-iidiiiii:~i:ili: ii-%i-:ii~i-ili~-iii--i-i~--i-ii i:i.:i:i-:i:~iia:::i-Bii.i:i~~i- i.-E~:-S -;jii-~:i~ ii-:iiii~~:::iiii~ l:ii- i::-:iiii`i :i,-i-iiiii:-ii:ii?iii ~ :-~~i:i-w- i-iii - i- ii i Ei-_iii -i :-ii_~ iL- :i_-ii--i iiei i:i_ii::?:i - i : _i ii:--- : :i:i::i - :?i iWe)A t sl?
::: : :_: .: _ii_ iiiii:iiii:i iiiii iiiiiii:ii i:ii:"i:i: i:iii:i :::i:i:i:a:i:i: ::::: ~ii:i::-iir-i_:?:-:ii_-i_ :l~ii- ii-i:i ii:::--ii?-: :_:-iiii:::-iiI :i:::i--:: i::i-:-iii:.::i: i:-i.-:::- i --:_;i:i-:i:--:::i-:1::i:::::i-: ::i:-:_:-~: :-i:--.: i-:: i:- :-:-i--_- . :- :_-: --:
!:::I I?---:--:?i_ :i-.-. -Ii::~?ii~: -- i:-:i.-ii :i-i
-i --I-:I; i:ii;-'i:i:-i: ii:i?i i:iiiii'ii
i-i'-i-i--ii ':ii- ii ~iiiii ii _ie.i:.. li ._i . .
:.~ ::-- --ii-:-i-: i-i-j-ii
___:: :i:ii:iii~i-?-i:;i_:-i ?::;_?_i--?-:-i-l:-i~-~-~:~-:--_-: ~:i:? i.i::i:i:i:i~~i;i~- .-eiiiiiiiii-ii-ai-iiii-ii-
-::: --:-:i::~_--_:-iiiiiiii--ii:i'i::~::-s- -i;2---::ii---i-i i-i-ii-ii'ii-i iiiiiii-:i-iii~i?i ~i: ;--:,*i:i:iii:i-ii;iiii-i :-~.~:---:---:-:-::-- ::i VA,
.--:.;-i_:--- i. _:_:--.::.i':-:-.:~::-,:::.: -: :::::.:::i:i:ii_::i:.:_-:i?::_.:i-i:?.:--_-:i:::::i--:::::: ::;i--:-.._:~i?i-_::.:~::i.:::::'::i-i::_:~:::i::i:: i-;-i:i.:i:::i::.i :-- ~-:: ii-:~ -i:: :;:--:i:-j;i:- :- i-_i? iii:_-i-?:i---~-: i: i:-:i-i'::~:iLs iiiii:jiii i-ili'.- -~~'i:i~::i:ili:ii:-i-:iii::i-i::iii::i:-: ~-: ::::::i I : :- ol
-.~.:?-:::.:-:- :::::::::- ::
~--i--i:i-:-- ::-
-:i:i:i:i::i'ii:::l: :;::-::i:?: ii? ~::-i?i-i-;i--:-::-r-:ii~ l-::-::::i~~
i---i-i :ii:i--ii-i i:ii": i-:iil:-:i::-: iiiiiii--_ : :
i:i:i:i:ii:i::::::i.::-l: ::i-:-: :-:i:: :?::::i:::i:::-: :i::-:::i:-:?:::::i::-;::i::::-:i: ?.:i:-i::-: : : - ..::: :
ji:i:iiiii -ii? ?:iii--'iil- :?ii?::ii'ii?l::?:ii---i::i:iii::i-: ei:::? :iii:iii iii-iiiii:i ::iiii:;i-::ii i:;:iiiii-i:: iii::iii:: ii: ':i-ii:i-i:i- -----':-:-::-- ......... .... ............. .. ... . . . . ..
i::i::ii r:i:ii---i?i:- ii--iii-:ii:'ii:iiiii:ii::is-i.i:-ii :sis:~i: i:iii:i`~l~Is$al~ Cs~i~B~ss~g~ ~ddBB I II I~::iiii:i-i:ii-:ii----ii-i-- ii -:
. ......... . ..
~I~C? ~pb~B~S~ ~8~ 'I i :::': ?:: .... ... ....... ........
- -
iiiii-ii:iii-iii: ~::i ii
ii:~~iiiiiiiiiiiiiii:i-.iii ii-:,? ,ii,i -ilii-i
:::::?:::;?:
a::?-~..~; :-:l:;ia\r:-:--::~_::::-:-?::
::
i--
--?~??--~?r? SO .-. ..-.& ..
.. ....t... . ... wg .1 301
~?i.:r iii:iii:iii;: :i iii
T.Ai
':::?::::-::ii:::'?:?-..::-'::-'i:Ia-:- '; :i- ?:i:l: :'''''F:::I:iG URE 10. Cornelisz van Oostsanen, St. Anne Trinity, 1525, Berlin,
iii-i.i::i.i:i.ili, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Gemiildegalerie (photo:
Gemiildegalerie).
Yet the main stress is surely on Anne of Burgundy's rela-
tionship with the grouping Anne/Mary/book, and it is time
FIGURE 9. Tilman Riemenschneider, St. Anne Trinity, after 1510, to investigate the meaning of that grouping.
Wiirzburg, Mainfrdnkische Museum (photo: Foto Zwicker Berberich
First, in manuscripts, of which the Bedford Hours is a
Atelierbetriebe).
good example, there seems to be some connection between
the presence of this image and patronage or ownership by
Two further examples indicate the variety of contexts women, a connection first observed by Nigel Morgan. Al-
in which the combination of Anne, Mary and book can ap- though the fact that Anne is the duchess's name saint is
pear. The first is a late fifteenth-century plague broadsheet, sufficient to explain her presence here, it is surely signifi-
showing the St. Anne Trinity and a kneeling man who cant that the duchess mirrors not only St. Anne's name but
seeks St. Anne's help against the plague.27 The other is a also her activity-both have open books before them.
complex composition that combines the core scene of Anne A similar relationship occurs in the first of sixteen
teaching the Virgin with the St. Anne Trinity, the Holy full-page miniatures following the calendar in the Fitzwarin
Kinship, and a woman with her patron saint-the Duchess Psalter, an English manuscript of the mid-1340s. As Veron-
of Bedford, Anne of Burgundy, kneeling before an opened ica Sekules comments, " ... the female donor of the manu-
book in the presence of her patron saint Anne (Fig. 11). script is included in the scene kneeling before St. Anne as
Marcel Thomas's commentary on this page from the Bed- she teaches the Virgin to read, as if she too is anxious to
ford Hours mentions neither St. Anne's book nor that of benefit from [Anne's] instruction."30N icholas Rogers has
Anne of Burgundy, and finds that the imagery "stress[es] recently identified the patroness and owner of the manu-
the notion of marriage."28A lthough Janet Backhouse gives script as Amice de Haddon.31I n a fifteenth-centuryB ook of
a fuller and more balanced description, she also does not Hours of Sarum Use made in France (Fig. 12), both St.
note Anne of Burgundy's book and uses the marginal Anne and the Virgin carry books, and some of the prayers
figures from the Holy Kinship to argue for a "stress on in the manuscript suggest that it had a female owner.
family relationships ... peculiarly appropriate to Anne [of Certainly the evidence of the image itself, as well as
Burgundy] given the long catalogue of diplomatically the limited information regarding specifically female pa-
significant marriages within her immediate family circle."'29 tronage, should be considered part of the growing body of
74
(cid:127)' (cid:127) iiiiiiiiiiiiiii-i-ii~-:.-ia-l -i!(cid:127)i-ii-iiiiiii!!(cid:127)iiliiiiiii~~iiii-i: (cid:127) (cid:127)i!!ii(cid:127)!i
..... "i::-:i::i- :- .-.--
lisi-i l:i:iiii-:ii:'iii:':i:a ?:-' i ?ii ii:i i-,: :..:.:::-::i:--:;1;_:i-i-: ;-:--j:: :-i:: ::i:: i?-'i:":=i :ii: i'ii iiii-: -i :- i::::::--::.:
~~iii~ iiami-ii:~-i:iiii iiiiiii-iiii?iiiiiii
~ ~
~iiiiCi~-iiiiii cc I-I sr" ss~gt-I-
~iz:ii~i -i--i ii-ii-:i ii a?_g-.,. :
iiiiii:i i-iiiiiii
iiiliii?---?aii?i i::i-::
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iii
:
.........
... ... ... .... .
ME
......
FIGURE 11. Duchess of Bedford before St. Anne Teaching the Virgin FIGURE 12. St. Anne and the Virgin Mary with books, Oxford, Bodleian
Mary, Bedford Hours, London, British Library MSA dd. 18850, fol. 257v, MSA uct. D. inf.2.11, fol. 51v, ca. 1430-40 (photo: Bodleian Library).
ca. 1423 (photo: by permission of the British Library).
knowledge about female literacy in the later Middle Ages.32 That is, rathert han simply mirroring the society of which it
Works of art in which women hold open book strongly sug- is a part, art functions to shape that society, it plays an ac-
gest a culture in which women read, and rather than inter- tive role. It is no accident or coincidence that the image of
pret the presence of a book as a general indication of Anne teaching the Virgin Mary appeared when it did. In
female piety, as is often done, we should take it as evidence fact, at the beginning of the fourteenth century there was a
of a literate woman, an owner of books, and possibly even new urgency regarding literacy. M. T. Clanchy argues for a
a patroness, for there is extensive evidence that women "shift from sacred script to practical literacy" in the twelfth
owned books and commissioned vernacular literature or and thirteenth centuries. "Practical business was the foun-
translations from Latin into a vernacular.33A mong these is dation of the new literacy."35 He speaks of "the growth of a
the only known illustrated example of the Manuel des literate mentality,"36w hich was a cultural fact by the begin-
peches, whose opening initial shows Joan Tateshal, its pa- ning of the fourteenth century, the time when the image of
troness "stand[ing] imperiously" and "appear[ing] to com- Anne teaching the Virgin begins to appear. In other words,
mand her scribe to begin writing the text."34 in order to function in their own "modern world," people
But the scene of Anne teaching the Virgin Mary to found it increasingly necessary to be literate. And, in re-
read, which appeared in the fourteenth century and became gard to the broad geographical area in which our image can
so popular throughout Western Europe, surely does more be found, it is important to note Clanchy's words: "The
than record evidence of historical circumstances, for its shift from memory to written record .. was not restricted
originating purpose can scarcely have been to illustrate the to England although it is most evident there. It was a west-
fact that women in a particular time and place could read. ern European phenomenon."37
75
Nor was this new literacy restricted to the vernacular. - :::i;-i-i-i?iii:ili ::i i-ii:
:: ~?
In a French vocabulary written by an Essex knight for Lady :;:::i-::::i:~ i~--:-,-:--i'i:iii:i- ::::~- -:-:-: :: .._ ;:::-i-:::::':: -: : l-:r-i: : i:-:, ,:i~--" i;:-:-.iSI:~:.-i,--:i.iii~: :i*i iai:~:,: :::-l.i:-:-
cDheinldisree nd'se FMreonncthch, ethnesy k tnoi guhste, Wasa lat etro oolf iBni bimbepsrwoovrinthg, haesr- iiii~~.i~.i:.~i~ :i-i :::i::i: :i: -::-~-:;-i::- ::---- :::::_- ,-:i::-i i:--:::i-;::~i-::-;ii:::i:--: i;:?~-:-:::;:il'::::? ::~i :::ii~I :-:_Xj-~ -~::R::i:~~i.:e; :.~ii:-~; ::l ?i~-i
sumes that she has already taught them from the Latin ?-:i-- ::i:i :i:: ::ii':-i ?-i-_-~- --
i:ii:i.-..;.i
primer.38A s Clanchy argues, "A little clergie [that is, the I: -_i"ii i i?:_i: i _ ---:
kchnioldwrleend'gse o pfotuionnds ionp ae np.r Fimroemr] hinacdli tnhaet iaodnv oarn ntaegcee sosfi tkye, ebpoinygs -iii-i-~:i-i:ii_ --:~:_i:-:i~-:ii :iiii: ;i:i~ ~:ii;i-i i-i,i~--i~-:B iii iii -ii;-:i-i:: :--_: -: :::i i i-:i:~i--:i::-_;-:ii- - iii::-l-i:: i::- 1i- i-:-i--i-:-
:::::i :::i'-i:i-:-:::- :-: ::: :::~:- ':-::-::i~:ii:- ::;:-::i-:'~:;_::: i;:-1:~ 4..i::::~:
or girls could subsequently join the 'religious', provided -xl::-----~a-:
:_:::::i--li-i:i:-i:_::
they had a grounding in Latin and some local influence."39 iiiei:i i- '.--:::- i-:::-i.-i .i- ii-ii:ii:ii iiliiii~i-iii ?i"iii_'i.i'-i:_'i:i_'i_-:' ? : :?:-;:~:
And in England there was an even more compelling reason -i-i:?:-:-~i :ii ;--:----::---:;:~-:-:-.::. - :-:--: -::-- --_-::--:- _: : --. : :
for teaching children some Latin for, "[f]rom the fourteenth ii:ii:i:'i:"i:i~jil:-i ii.i, i_:r-::,,--::,;,;:.l-- -:::.::-:.:.: .::: ?-::::-_:::::i:_-:;:-_:;l_-:::-:::-i:-: -~;:? :;:-,::~l~~-:~ i
~iii~i~~iiiiiaiiiiii~--~-:i~ii--~i~a:-iB-iiisi:i:-i'_-'~: i~
century, ... a little Latin, 'benefit of clergy', was also an in- ?~~i:ii,i~~iiiiii~~l~i~l~ii?iii-:,i::iiisi~~:is;i-:i--~~ix~?~~.i:ii?~i:s::-,~ ii~:~il,;-iPI
surance against being hanged. Thus by 1300 parents of all
S: ~.:i?8i~i-(: ?~ii--i-_i-ii
social classes had strong motives for seeing that their chil-
dren were clerici and literati in the new minimal sense of
being capable of reading a verse from the Bible."40 One ~~xs~~i~~
reading of the new scene of St. Anne teaching the Virgin
would find it to be an advertisement for a life insurance iii-i-ii:iii-~ii:ii-i:ii;li -i-i_ii:ii - i-i ---:::-
policy that parents, specifically mothers, could "purchase" ii~~-ii~iiiii
for their children.
Some or all of these functions may inform a full-page
miniature in a Sarum Book of Hours of about 1325-30, in
which the Virgin, sheltered in Anne's fur-lined cloak, holds
an alphabet book (Fig. 13).41 The book contains six capital
letters, separated by ruled lines, which spell the word
PB-i~~
"Domine." In a similar vein, a fourteenth-century wall ~-~I:i~~i~~iiii~iiai~iii:i~?xiii-~isi-i
painting at Mentmore, Buckinghamshire, now destroyed, ~~i-~'::',-:l:~~:-r?-iii:i~j:-i::i-ii-,_:li_-:ii.::::--;.:; - ~ii:-: ~: ':;:i?,:::-::i:i:d,i:i-,:rii lB:i-"i,i:??-iii:?:iii-.-?::-i: a- ~. : :~.:li.:8 _:i:i-:i:ii':_i:i ,T:i :i_ij:::?i :_ :::-:--.,:_ ~::: -i-:_::::,-_-:?-::_i: i:i- ~_?~:,:ii-i::ii_iii~ii':i-i:iiii ~:i:-;i_.::?iii?--i::~ i:;-:-ii::i-i~, 'iI'':ii?:-i- i:.-"-~::-:i" :?:~' -i'5i:i:i:i-:";i~' ? ii:--;ii;-i--i~i?-i-i -:iii-:i:i-~ -~i:ii':i- :i:ii---l-: i~ii:i-~~-i--:~-i~ -iii:i:-:--i a~_~4ii;-i
showed the Virgin in the Education scene holding a scroll .i'g`i.ii~i~ii iii:ii?a:l::iiiiii i.? ii-iii: .?: -i:i-l ~i_, __: i_i:` iii,i ii-i'i::~ii? ?''':':::: :' - -;-:..i i:i-i-i-i_i:iii_i. -i:ji_ :iii: ii:ii:ii - -
with the letters "A B C."42 -:-::::::'-: -:i:- - i:?- : :i-a-~-i-.i~;.-.:-::"-.:_i:j::'-;:i: :.-:-i:_i-i:i:i:-ii-; -:iig:r-'::- j:-i:,---:.: iii-:--:-i:$i:i:--.-:i.-- : _- i-:i:- .-:-iii:_i - --i?- ;ii: ?-: : hi_:-:i:i?:'i:i_ i-i: '-ii i-':::i'iii_ '.i'iii: i: i?iiiii::.: ::-i:i: i -i?:-.-iii i::-?'i --:i:i'-i::i: ii-:j:i:-:i:-i: :i-_:i:::i-: :-ii: -i-i---i:-:i- `:-ii-i:i:- i8~_-;?--ii-ii::ii---i----:i-_-:ii ii:-i::-i:::-:-i;--:s--- , --::-_i i~~iiiij
Only slightly earlier Walter of Bibbesworth had written ~$~iii~~iiii---i-i,~ i-i-::: :::i: i -; i-i--_ : --_:,: 'i:i-:i :i i-.:-:-ii: -: :-:: -:i': l--_~ir-lii-:::?-i:-;?i:-'~:?:-:-:-::i::i:,i-:-li: :-:A:: e::.::::i: -~i--?:.?:--::i ::-ii:ii~\ ,i:i:~::: ~-~:si- i?ii::-:---: i::--:,:-i:-ii_-i:_i: _:-:j:j:?::-::1 ;
a rhyming vocabulary in French with some interlineations in
English for the Lady Denise de Montchensey to use in teach- FIGURE 13. St. Anne and the Virgin Mary, Oxford, Bodleian Ms Douce
231, fol. 3, ca. 1325-1330 (photo: Bodleian Library).
ing her children not elementary French which, Walter says,
everyone knew how to speak, but the specialized vocabulary
that would allow them to function in the adult world of es- It is perhaps the concern for the early education of
tate management and of the court. Denise was widowed and children by their mothers that explains why even in scenes
her children might well have been in danger of losing their where the Infant Jesus is present, the Virgin Mary is shown
social status if they could not function in educated French. as a girl learning her letters from her mother. And of course
A late example of a child's first book, a primer, rein- one purpose of literacy which cannot go unmentioned was
forces the conclusion that children's literacy was a mother's to provide the ability to read a Book of Hours. That is
responsibility, and that the imagery of St. Anne and her surely one reason that often on the books in these scenes
daughter served as the vehicle for communicating that re- we find the words, "Domine labia mea aperies," the open-
sponsibility. The key images are on pages one and fourteen, ing versicle of Matins in the Hours of the Virgin.
the first and last pages of the Primer of Claude of France, Once we approach this image in terms of its cultural
made around 1505-1510 (Figs. 14 and 15). On the first page functions, it can open for us aspects of medieval culture
St. Anne presents the Virgin Mary and Claude of France to that have resisted traditional approaches. For example, with
Claude's name saint, Claude of Besangon. Claude holds a few exceptions, such as the excellent work of Judith M.
closed book, and seems to seek St. Claude's support and as- Bennett and BarbaraH anawalt,43w e have no studies that il-
sistance as she begins her reading lessons. On the last page luminate domestic life in general and specifically that of
Claude kneels before her own open book, following along any but the upper class. Thus, although we have a variety of
as St. Anne teaches the Virgin. Having reached the last page sources attesting to widespread literacy among upper-class
of her primer, she can now read. But the primer insists more women, it is much more difficult to say anything about the
directly that Claude's literacy is her mother's responsibility, middle class, other than to note that apparently Marjorie
for Claude's mother was named Anne. Kempe could not write. But St. Anne's popularity was not
76
...._ _
....... .... ......
INI
ijji 1 m10 _ ems
-
ARv
FIGURE 14. (far left) Primer of
Claude of France, 1505-1510, Cam-
bridge, Fitzwilliam Museum,M s1 59,
p. 1 (photo: Fitzwilliam Museum).
FIGURE 15. (left) Primer of Claude
of France, Cambridge, Fitzwilliam
Museum, MS1 59, p. 14 (photo: Fitz-
william Museum).
confined to the upper classes. In seeking to understand" the personify abstractions, such as the Virtues and Vices, com-
importance of St. Anne plays and altars and guilds in late plicates this reading.48N evertheless, studies of medieval
medieval East Anglia,"44G ail McMurray Gibson examines education generally neglect even to mention the mother as
a poem about Anne in the fifteenth-century commonplace teacher. In a particularly egregious example, an article on
book compiled by a Norfolk man named Robert Reynes. the education of women in the Middle Ages offers the fol-
She finds that the poem presents Anne as "a model East lowing conclusion: "Aristocraticw omen received some edu-
Anglian matron, tending to her tithes, her almsbasket, and cation at court or castle. Upper class women learned at the
her prayerbook. She lives a busy, comfortable, and pious manor, from private clergy. In the later Middle Ages poor
life.... " "It is difficult," Gibson concludes, "to imagine a university students may have acted as tutors. But girls had to
saint with more obvious bourgeois appeal."45A nd women learn at home from fathers, brothers, clergy."49Y et surely
modeling themselves on Anne found her image-a mother "girls who learned at home" became mothers who could
teaching her daughter-readily available, for she appeared teach their daughters at home. In fact a group of treatises in
not only in manuscripts whose expensive illuminations the voice of a mother addressed to her daughter, written in
largely restricted ownership to the upper class, but also the same centuries in which our image flourished, indicate
painted on the walls of parish churches and standing near that mothers did exactly that. A middle English poem found
their altars. Relatively inexpensive alabaster figures and in a number of fourteenth and fifteenth century manuscripts
panels were distributed not only throughout England but, as and entitled "How the Good Wife Taught her Daughter"c el-
products of an export industry, reached many churches in ebrates the continuity of this private, domestic education
Western Europe.46 when, near the end of the poem the mother says, "Now have
This image also gives us access to the neglected area of I taught thee, daughter, as did my mother me."50
domestic life in the Middle Ages and, in particular,i t forces Finally, if the image of Anne teaching the Virgin is so
us to see that this culture considered the mother's role as her widespread in the late Middle Ages, how have we failed to
children's first teacher to be important, even crucial.47 This notice its importance? Among a number of possible rea-
message may also be encoded in the personification of sons, I would like to point to three. First, we have inter-
Grammatica as a woman teaching boys their ABC's, as in a preted late medieval culture as dominated by affective
fifteenth-century German manuscriptn ow in Vienna, though piety, an affective piety focused on the relationship of Mary
the common medieval practice of using female figures to and Jesus, mother and son, emotionally heightened by the
77