The essay investigates the reasons why the iconography today known as “Sant’Anna Metterza”, which portrays Saint Anne as the third and most prominent figure within a composition including her daughter Mary and her grandchild Christ, suddenly appeared in painting and sculpture during the second half of the thirteenth century throughout Europe, from Tuscany and Lombardy to Bavaria up to the coasts of the Baltic Sea. In fact, the spread of this iconography was too vast, quick and consistent to be satisfactorily explained solely as a consequence of the diffusion of Jacobus de Voragine’s Golden Legend, which was composed between the 1260s and 1290s, and which tells the story of Mary’s infancy, including that of her parents Anne and Joachim. After analyzing the hagiographic sources that preceded and influenced de Voragine’s work, focusing on Jean de Mailly and Bartholomew of Trent, the essay reconstructs how the character of Saint Anne achieved growing importance within the genealogy of Christ. Also, it argues that this genealogy’s matrilinear character had become obvious by mid thirteenth century, when hagiographers repeatedly felt the need to point out that the patrilinear genealogy proposed by Matthew and Luke, which connected Jesus to the lineage of David via Joseph, could not be correct. The essay’s final part places the development of the iconography of Sant’Anna Metterza within this context, suggesting that this new composition, which reproduces the vertical structure of genealogical trees, is a perfect example of the Medieval “mental structure” (R. H. Bloch), according to which any form of history – from family history to sacred history – was interpreted and understood in terms of lineage.
Le fonti agiografiche per l’iconografia di sant’Anna Metterza (o della genealogia matrilineare “primaria” di Gesù) / Galizzi Kroegel, Alessandra. - In: HAGIOGRAPHICA. - ISSN 1124-1225. - STAMPA. - XXXI (2024):(2024), pp. 249-282.
Le fonti agiografiche per l’iconografia di sant’Anna Metterza (o della genealogia matrilineare “primaria” di Gesù)
Galizzi Kroegel, Alessandra
2024-01-01
Abstract
The essay investigates the reasons why the iconography today known as “Sant’Anna Metterza”, which portrays Saint Anne as the third and most prominent figure within a composition including her daughter Mary and her grandchild Christ, suddenly appeared in painting and sculpture during the second half of the thirteenth century throughout Europe, from Tuscany and Lombardy to Bavaria up to the coasts of the Baltic Sea. In fact, the spread of this iconography was too vast, quick and consistent to be satisfactorily explained solely as a consequence of the diffusion of Jacobus de Voragine’s Golden Legend, which was composed between the 1260s and 1290s, and which tells the story of Mary’s infancy, including that of her parents Anne and Joachim. After analyzing the hagiographic sources that preceded and influenced de Voragine’s work, focusing on Jean de Mailly and Bartholomew of Trent, the essay reconstructs how the character of Saint Anne achieved growing importance within the genealogy of Christ. Also, it argues that this genealogy’s matrilinear character had become obvious by mid thirteenth century, when hagiographers repeatedly felt the need to point out that the patrilinear genealogy proposed by Matthew and Luke, which connected Jesus to the lineage of David via Joseph, could not be correct. The essay’s final part places the development of the iconography of Sant’Anna Metterza within this context, suggesting that this new composition, which reproduces the vertical structure of genealogical trees, is a perfect example of the Medieval “mental structure” (R. H. Bloch), according to which any form of history – from family history to sacred history – was interpreted and understood in terms of lineage.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione