File:BLW Stained Glass - Annunciation to St Anne.jpg

English: Stained Glass - Annunciation to St Anne

About 1350-55;
Austria, Styria;
from the Marian shrine church at Strassengel, near Graz

This is one of two panels in the Museum's collections (Museum nos. C.71 & 72-1930) which were originally from the north window of the choir of Wallfahrtskirche in Strassengel, near Graz in Austria. Graz is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria. The panels formed part of a series of windows depicting episodes from the Life of the Virgin Mary. The church was consecrated in 1353 and it is believed that this series of windows dates from that time.

Wallfahrtskirche was restored in 1885 and it was probably at this time that some of the choir windows illustrating the Life of the Virgin Mary were removed.

The Life of the Virgin Mary was a popular subject in medieval devotion. It was illustrated in manuscripts, frescoes, panel paintings, sculpture, textiles and, as here, in stained glass. Very little of Mary's life is recorded in the Canonical Gospels of Saints Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Other sources such as popular saints' lives were consulted. One of the most influential collections of saints' lives was the 'Golden Legend' which was compiled in the middle of the 13th century. This text, reproduced many times in the late medieval period, had an enormous effect on the artistic works of the medieval church.

The original sources that the compiler of the 'Golden Legend' used for the life of Mary were what are now called the 'Apocryphal Gospels'. These are texts written in the early centuries of the Christian era that were considered to be non-authoritative and were excluded from the canon that formed the first Bible.

This panel depicts St. Anne at the moment when an angel comes to tell her that she will conceive a child. The angel had already visited her husband, Joachim, to say that Anne would conceive and give birth to a girl who would be called Mary.

This story is an obvious parallel to that of the canonical story of the Annunciation to Mary. The angel informs Mary that she is with child and will give birth to Jesus, saviour of mankind.

Presented by The Art Fund