St Anne teaching the Virgin to read
Can I see it?
Not on view at present
Where is “St Anne teaching the Virgin to read” now? Collection: Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Not on view at present. Checked September 25, 2026.
London, United Kingdom
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the sculpture
This statuette in ivory depicts 'St Anne teaching the Virgin to read', seated in a wide chair with her right arm round the Virgin, who stands at her side, pointing to a book St Anne has on her lap and in her left hand. The group, very likely to be Indo-Portuguese (Goa) and made in about 1700, is an inferior version of a commonly known composition. There are comparable ivories and versions in the British Museum, in the Vatican Museum, the Franz Mayer Museum in Mexico City and there are wood groups in Brazil. They might depend from an Indo-Portuguese source. Clearly the composition was widely disseminated, perhaps through an engraved source. Goa was the second base in India to be established by the Portuguese, having been conquered by Alfonso de Albuquerque (about 1453-1515) during the reign of Manuel I of Portugal initially in 1510, and then reconquered in 1512.
Read on
Portugal was interested first and foremost in trade, and the discovery of India was motivated by a desire to dominate trade-routes. But the Christian settlers and missionaries were also keen to convert the native populace to Christianity, and religious images in ivory were commissioned to assist in this. Some were exported to Europe, but others evidently remained and were used for evangelical purposes.
Victoria and Albert Museum
Details
- Accession number
- A.34-1940
What it shows
In the catalog
Sources
- Victoria and Albert Museum
- Image: Victoria and Albert Museum — © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
