The Holy Kinship

This drawing, long recorded in the literature with various attributions to Alsatian or Rhenish masters, was attributed to the Master of the Drapery Studies by Friedrich Winkler in 1930 and confirmed by Michael Roth in his dissertation on the master in 1988. Typical for the Master of the Drapery Studies’ work at the beginning of his career, this delicate but vigorously executed drawing echoes the composition of an engraved Holy Family made in ca. 1450/75 by the Master of the Banderoles (Netherlandish, active ca. 1450-ca. 1475).
This drawing shows the Holy Kinship which grew out of late medieval legend that created the theory of the trinubium, or the three marriages of Anne. The theory was incorporated into the later texts of Pseudo-Matthew and repeated in Jacobus de Voragine’s collection of hagiographies the Golden Legend (ca. 1260) and by those means became generally known and widely accepted in the later Middle Ages as part of Anne’s life story. According to the trinubium, Joachim must have died soon after the birth of the Virgin Mary, so that Anne could marry a second husband named Cleophas, by whom she bore Mary Cleophas (formerly called Mary Jaboby as shown in the drawing), and a third husband named Salome, by whom she bore Mary Salome. From these three daughters, the theory continued, came Jesus and all six "brothers" or cousins named in the Gospels. James the lesser or younger, Joseph, Simon, and Jude were explained as the sons of Mary Cleophas, who had married Alpheus; James the Greater and John the Evangelist, as the sons of Mary Salome, who had married Zebedee. Thus Anne became the grandmother of some of the most prominent apostles, as well as Jesus himself.




Mary and her mother Anne are in the left foreground with the infant Jesus. Behind Anne are her three husbands, and next to them behind the Virgin is Joseph, and Anne’s sister, Esmeria, who is the mother of Elizabeth who bore John the Baptist. They are also shown nestled behind Joseph. Most sketchily outlined is the central portion of the drawing. Seen with just a few quick strokes is Simon, Judas, Jacob the Minor and Joseph the sons of Maria Cleophas, Zebedeus, John the Evangelist and Jacob the Major. Above the central group and added by a later hand are Alpheus, Mary Cleophas’ husband, and Eliud, the brother of John the Baptist (they are added later along with another man and woman who have yet to be identified and also do not appear in the printed model). Above Maria Salome are the mother of Servarius who is presumably Servatius the grandson of Eliud, she is not named but a later inscription notes "Emin" and Servatius’ father according to the Golden Legend is Eminem. The Master of the Drapery Studies shows off his delights in the fall of drapery in the foreground of the scene.







The group of figures above "Maria Jacobi" are done by a slightly later hand in darker ink, inscriptions (as yet not deciphered) by a later hand are also found above two other groupings along the top edge of the drawing. It also appears that some of the letters scattered throughout were added by the same later hand. The drawing does not include the xylographic inscription on the print which is takes from the Golden Legend.