The cult and iconography of Saint Anne in late medieval Europe with particular reference to Florence 1343 to 1528

Abstract

This thesis examines the cult and iconography of Saint Anne in Europe generally and in Florence specifically. Saint Anne was declared a patroness of Florence when the Duke of Athens, a tyrant, was overthrown on her feast day in 1343. The thesis attempts to trace the cult and iconography of Saint Anne in Florence in the light of the popularity of the Saint in Europe in the late middle ages. The contrast between aspects of her cult in Northern Europe and in Florence is discussed. Reasons why certain features were omitted from Florentine representations are suggested. Saint Anne occupies an unusual position in the pantheon of female saints, due, not only to her familial relationship with the Christ Child, but also because female sanctity was normally defined by the criteria of chastity and passivity in the face of martyrdom. Although the number of married saints increased in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the emphasis on leading a chaste life, in these cases within marriage, remained. The legend of the three marriages of Saint Anne, represented in Northern European art from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries was not represented in her patronal city.