Among the painter’s
scenes from Mary's life, there is a motif from the Virgin’s childhood that
occurs four times: St Anne teaches Mary to read. This is a motif that was quite
often already in the Baroque church art of the 18th century, and then continued
into the 19th century, when it highlighted the values and aspirations of the
modern bourgeois society. In the lecture, we will see why and how the motif
played a key role in the popularization of church art in the first half of the
19th century.
Langus' picture from
the National Gallery of Slovenia follows the tradition of painters who relied
on Murillo's painting of St Anne Teaches Mary to Read (Madrid, Prado),
where only little Mary and Anne are connected. With the painting from 1840,
Langus relied directly on the suggestions and directions of the Nazarene
painters in composition and design. In his sketchbooks we also find several
drawings that testify to a detailed study of the motif.
5 September – 3
October 2024
National Gallery
of Slovenia
Prešernova 24
1000 Ljubljana