MASACCIO E MASOLINO |

Sant'Anna Metterza |

Uffizi, Sala 7 |

Versione integrale | La narrazione è di Silvia Barlacchi, la voce di Paola Roscioli |

Leggi la scheda completa dell'opera su uffizi.it

Masaccio and Masolino | Virgin and Child with St. Anne | Room 7 

A hand on a shoulder brings comfort, however small, slender and apparently fragile. This dual portrait of motherhood is all inside a vertical line: affection, protection, solidarity, trust, courage, from one to the other, through to the Child on his mother’s lap. This however, is not conveyed in words, but in gestures and presence.

Now, in this room there is a mother holding her child, with another woman to protect and guide her. A look that follows affectionately, and one I know well. I am the mother of two girls but, before that, I was a daughter. Between my mother and myself, the same daily acts of care, but which were and said much more. My mother, behind me, speaking to me as she combed my hair: advice, deep and simple thoughts about things, while my gaze was elsewhere.

Angels move around this apparition, guiding our eyes towards the group in the center, joined together by life. Mary’s dress delicately outlines her body, which still seems to bear the signs of pregnancy. In popular tradition, St Anne is the patron saint of mothers who have recently given birth. Hers is a safe presence behind Mary. In mid-air, her left hand extends above the Child, as if to create a protective space that is easily visible to her eyes.

I am inside a grey room. It is day, but the lighting is artificial. I feel alone and wish there could be a hand to hold on to, to face this moment that will change my life forever. In my head, I can still hear the words of someone suggesting that the hand I was seeking was yours, Emma. There was so much pain, but your little hand brought us both out, into the real light. Like the tiny hand of Jesus, resting gently on his mother’s arm.

Depicted behind Mary, St Anne was also referred to as “metterza”, i.e. placed in the third position in relation to the figures of Mary and Child. The panel was executed by two Florentine masters from the early 15th century: Masolino and Masaccio, two artists with different temperaments, who achieved an extraordinary balance in this painting. A hand on a shoulder means collaboration, interaction. The lives and careers of Masaccio and Masolino are woven together: perhaps the younger relied on the older one, and who knows if Masolino actually extended his protection to him. But the future is in Masaccio’s hands, as Mary’s is in hers, in the small, yet already powerful child she holds on her knee.

Motherhood is a journey with so many conflicting feelings. You would never expect that this tiny, defenseless being could contain the strength to guide you through this new experience, as if he contained all the knowledge of life, renewed every time.

I saw you the first time through a door left open. Before that, you were just a picture, pieces of paper: we filled in so many before we could complete your adoption. You came into the room and you stopped, frightened. Every part of me was filled with emotion. I didn’t know if I could touch you. Then I dried your tears, took your little hands and whispered a song in your own language I had learned especially for our meeting. You looked at me and I picked you up. At last I could hold you, and in that moment our lives were joined and we became a family, Sofia Zhiqun.