English: Mary Salome and Zebedee

About 1510
Tilman Riemenschneider (about 1460-1531)
Germany, Wurzburg
Limewood, glazed and punched

This group of St Anne's daughter Mary Salome and her husband Zebedee originally formed the right wing of an altarpiece of the Holy Kindred. The central scene would have depicted the seated St Anne and her primary daughter the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child, and behind them St Joseph and St Anne's three husbands, Joachim, Salomas and Cleophas. On the left wing was a relief with her daughter Mary Cleophas and her husband Alphaeus (now in the W�rttembergishes Landesmuseum, Stuttgart). The reliefs would not have painted, as was customary, bust instead covered with a translucent monochrome glaze, as in many other altarpieces by Riemenschneider.

The cult of St Anne had by the end of the fifteenth century become increasingly popular throughout Europe, often celebrated by brotherhoods dedicated to that particular saint. The elaboration of the imagery of the Holy Kindred with St Anne, her three daughters and their families was connected with her growing veneration.