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The genealogy of Christ has been represented in many forms in the late middle ages. The Holy Family (comprised of Christ and his parents Joseph as Mary, as well as grandparents Anna and Joachim, aunt Elisabeth and cousin John the Baptist) was one way of humanising Christ as well as create sentimentally engaging tableaus. One of the wide-spread configurations of this family was Anna Selbdritt.
Anna Selbdritt literally translates from German as Anna three-self. This name carries within the idea that, since Christ was conceived without a father (and therefore a copy of his mother), and Mary was conceived immaculately, the three members of the Holy Family were extensions of Anna’s flesh and blood; Mary and Christ as replicas of the same self.
Anna, Mary and Christ Child Book of Hours (Netherlands, c.1500) British Library MS King’s 9, f. 53v
This concept of a triplicate Anna brings this group in close parallel with the trinity, where God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit form one Godself. These two trinities are sometimes visually compared. What makes Anna Selbrditt interesting as parallel to the Trinity is that, by logical and medical standards, Christ is female, part of a female trinity.
Two trinities surrounding St Bridget BĂźrde der Welt (Germany, 1481) British Museum, item no 1897,0512.3
The Anna Selbdritt group is often even represented visually as an all-female trinity. Some of its imagery heavily borrows from stylised depictions of the (male, by account of Father and Son) Trinity. with seating arrangement and props such as books (symbolising the word of God, authority or intellectual production and reproduction) and the dove.
Female trinity with dove Toledo Missal (Spain, 16C) Spanish National Lib., Vitr/18/5, f.338v
Not only is the Anna Selbdritt sometimes visually structured like the classical trinity, but it also informs, in its own right, the depictions of this all-male trinity. In this unusual (but not unique) book of hours miniature, three persons of the trinity (God the Father, Christ Redemptor and baby Jesus) cradle each other, clearly borrowing from the Anna Selbdritt imagery.
Unusual trinity Hours or Psalter (France, 15C) Index of Christian Art. Private MS, f.185r
The female trinity represented by Anna Selbdritt created a model for female kinship and matrilineal genealogies. Familial female succession (between mothers, daughters, nieces etc) was a phenomenon common in nuns’ houses, especially royallyadministered ones, where female noble offspring was excluded from direct land and title inheritance.
Holy Family with donor Anna van Nieuwenhove Presented by St Anne (Netherlands, 1482) Metropolitan Museum, inv no 1975.1.114
Women also passed down through matrilineal links their books and knowledge. Anna is often depicted as teaching young Mary and baby Jesus how to read, a practice common to mothers who were first teachers of their kids. In their wills, female book owners often reserved their prized volumes for female relatives. Book-giving also created kinship with-out blood ties.
Anne of Burgundy and Anna Selbdritt The Bedford Hours (France, 1430) British Library Add 18850, f.257v
While Anna Selbdritt offered a model for intellectual and economic production based on kinship, its most important aspect was its emphasis on reproduction and domesticity. While reminded of the immaculate aspect of the births, the spectator was given these (nursing, teaching) holy women as an example of female obedience and domesticity.
Anna Selbdritt with nursing Christ Prayer Book of Charles the Bold (Flanders, 1469) Getty Museum MS 37. f.45
If the logical extension of Anna Selbdritt – the triplicate mother – was that Christ, at least his flesh, was female by provenance, other trinity-adjacent imagery completely blurred gender lines. This pregnancy-centric Umbrian fresco, with suggestive framing and Selbdritt-like succession of persons, imagines God the father as pregnant with Mary.
Immaculate conception Umbrian fresco (Italy, 1510) Nationalmuseum Stockholm
If you want to learn more: Pocket Miscellanies #12: Trinity; TBC Women reading, teaching, writing Bell (1983) Medieval Women Book Owners, Signs Nixon (1997) Anna Selbdritt in late medieval Germany, Concordia University PhD Wareham (2001) Transformation of Kinship and Family, Early Modern Europe
COVER: Anna Selbdritt and female saint Book of Hours (France, 1430) Czech National Library XXIII.F.198, f136r
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