365 Saints: 08 works, Today, July 25th, is Saint Anna's day, her story thru art #206

Francesco Melzi, (1491–1568)

St Anne with the Virgin and the Child and a Lamb, between 1520 and 1525

Oil on panel

Height: 99 cm (38.9 in); Width: 72 cm (28.3 in)

Uffizi Museum

Francesco Melzi, or Francesco de Melzi, (circa 1491 – 1568/70) was a son of an aristocrat that met Leonardo when he was 15 and stayed with him almost his entire life. From 1506-1517 he also Inherited much of Leonardo's estate and works.

Melzi became Leonardo's pupil and life companion, and is considered to have been his favorite student. He accompanied Leonardo on trips to Rome in 1513 and to France in 1517. As a painter, Melzi worked closely with and for Leonardo. Some works which, during the nineteenth century, were attributed to Leonardo are today ascribed to Melzi.

Upon Leonardo's death, Melzi inherited the artistic and scientific works, manuscripts, and collections of Leonardo, and would henceforth faithfully administer the estate.

Returning to Italy, Melzi married, and fathered a son, Orazio. When Orazio died on his estate in Vaprio d'Adda, his heirs sold the collection of Leonardo's works." More on Francesco Melzi

Saint Anna, the mother of the Theotokos (the Virgin Mary), was the wife of St. Joachim and the daughter of Mattham, a Levi priest. St. Joachim was of the lineage of Judah and a descendant of King David. Anna was the daughter of Matthan the priest, from the lineage of Levi, as was Aaron the high priest. Matthan had three daughter.

Filippino Lippi, 1497

The Meeting of Joachim and Anne Outside the Golden Gate of Jerusalem

Tempera on panel

National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen.

Filippino Lippi, (born c. 1457, Prato, Republic of Florence—died April 18, 1504, Florence) early Renaissance painter of the Florentine school whose works influenced the Tuscan Mannerists of the 16th century. After his father’s death, Filippino entered the workshop of Botticelli. By 1473 he had finished his apprenticeship. The style of Filippino’s earliest works stems from that of Botticelli, but Filippino’s use of line is less sensitive and subtle than Botticelli’s. In a group of paintings executed about 1480–85 he developed a harder and more individual style. Among the most notable works of this period is the Journey of Tobias (above). He was employed, along with Botticelli, Perugino, and Domenico Ghirlandaio, on the frescoed decoration of Lorenzo de’ Medici’s villa at Spedaletto and at the end of 1482 was commissioned to complete work left unfinished by Perugino in the Palazzo della Signoria in Florence. No trace of either work survives. Soon after (probably 1483–84) he was entrusted with the completion of the frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel in the Carmine, which had been left unfinished on Masaccio’s death in 1428.

After his return from Rome, Filippino executed a fresco of the Death of Laocoön for the villa of Lorenzo de’ Medici at Poggio a Caiano, in which some of the decorative devices used in the Carafa Chapel are again employed, and resumed work in the Strozzi Chapel (completed 1502), the frescoes of which anticipate Tuscan Mannerism of the 16th century. More on Filippino Lippi

Anna and Joachim were married and childless for about 50 years. This saddened them, and they vowed that should the Lord bless them with a child they would dedicate it to Him. Hoping their prayers would be answered, they brought gifts to the Lord's temple in Jerusalem on the yearly Feast of the Dedication and Feast of Lights. The priests, however, did not wish to accept them, since they were from a childless man, and Joachim was scorned. Publicly humiliated he soon remembered that Abraham whom God gave a son in his old age. He then retired to the wilderness to pray, were the Archangel Gabriel told him that his prayers have been heard, and that Anna will give birth to a daughter who shall be called Mary.

Masolino da Panicale

The Archangel Gabriel, c. 1430

Tempera on poplar panel

76.6 × 57.8 cm (30 3/16 × 22 3/4 in.)

The National Gallery, London

Masolino da Panicale (born 1383, Panicale, near Perugia, Romagna—died probably 1440–47, Florence) was a painter who achieved a compromise between the International Gothic manner and the advanced early Renaissance style of his own day and who owes his prominence in the history of Florentine art not to his innovations but to his lyrical style and his unfailing artistry.

In 1423, Masolino joined the Florentine guild Arte dei Medici e Spezial, which included painters as an independent branch He spent many years traveling, including a trip to Hungary from September 1425 to July 1427. He was selected by Pope Martin V, on the return of the papacy to Rome in 1420, to paint the altarpiece for his family chapel in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, and later by Cardinal Branda da Castiglione to paint the Saint Catherine Chapel in the Basilica of San Clemente, Rome. In the interim, he collaborated with his younger colleague, Masaccio, to paint the frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel in the Basilica of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence, which were much admired by fellow artists throughout the fifteenth century. He painted a cycle of 300 famous historical figures in the Orsini Palace in Rome about 1433-4 and also worked in Todi. He spent his later years, after 1435, working for Cardinal Branda Castiglione in Castiglione Olona. More on Masolino da Panicale

The Archangel also reminded Joachim that, "according to your vow, she (Mary) shall be devoted to the Lord from her infancy, and she shall be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from her mother's womb. Mary shall not eat or drink anything unclean, nor shall her conversation or life be among the crowds of the people, but in the temple of the Lord, that it may not be possible to say, or so much as to suspect, any evil concerning her".

Anna, meanwhile, went home to her garden weeping bitterly. She sat under a laurel tree and prayed, "O God of our fathers, bless me and hear my prayer, as You opened the womb of Sarah and gave her a son Isaac".