7 - Book Reviews

Summary

Ashley, Kathleen, and Pamela Sheingorn, ed. Interpreting Cultural Symbols: Saint Anne in the Late-Medieval Society. Athens and London: The University of Georgia Press, 1990. Pp. 243. 64 b. & w. illustrations.

This handsome-looking paperback shows a painting by an anonymous Swabian artist of c.1500 on the front cover, a work located at the Philadelphia Museum of Art which represents the Holy Kinship, i.e., St. Anne's extended family of twenty-three members, who include, besides Anne, Mary, and Jesus, also John the Baptist, St. Servatius and seven apostles (Anne's grandsons). The book contains an introduction of sixty-eight pages by the editors, which provides the well-researched historical development of St. Anne's cult. Six articles by various contributors follow, studies which reflect Kalamazoo papers of 1988 and treat art and literature on the subject of St. Anne in western Europe. Interpreted within their political, historic, economic, and social contexts, these essays if read with the introduction in mind complement each other by providing a complete overview of when, why, where, how, and by whom the artwork and the texts were produced. The writings focusing on the St. Anne legend and art are trying to provide, for the first time in English, a comprehensive survey: the appearance of the saint in art and drama, the commissioning by individuals and groups, such as brotherhoods and nuns, and the saint's life borne out in folklore, history, and popular piety (Volksfrömmigkeit in German).