Scripture · Song of Solomon 3:1
Proverbs 17:6
Saint Anne with the Infant Jesus
Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of a son is his father.
Here the flame is visible, close to the baby’s cheek. The older woman’s candle gives the small wrapped figure a concentrated light, making age and infancy the encounter around which the picture is built.
About the artwork
The Art Gallery of Ontario calls the figures Saint Anne and the infant Jesus and dates the picture about 1645–50. Another title in French lists identifies the baby as the swaddled Virgin Mary. The painted child does not settle that difference; this reading follows the holding museum’s identification while retaining the alternative.
The painting entered the Toronto collection through an anonymous bequest in 1991. Unlike The Newborn at Rennes, it leaves the candle’s flame in view. Anne’s identity as Mary’s mother comes from later Christian tradition, not from the canonical Gospels. An open book at the lower left extends the scene beyond the two faces, placing reading alongside the care of the child.
Featured in: Georges de La Tour’s Bible Paintings: The Candle Painter Hidden Under Other Names
What does Proverbs 17:6 mean?
Proverbs 17:6 places grandchildren and parents within a reciprocal picture of family honour: the aged find a crown in their grandchildren, while children find glory in their fathers. It is a proverb about generations, not a narrative naming Anne.
The connection depends on the museum’s identification of the infant as Jesus, Anne’s grandson in Christian tradition. If the alternative identification of the child as Mary is followed, the specific grandparent relationship changes. Stating that dependence lets the warmth of the pairing remain precise.
Proverbs 17:6 fits the museum’s reading of Anne with her grandson, while the alternative title remains an acknowledged uncertainty.
Sources
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto collection record.
Proverbs 17 — Berean Standard Bible. The paired text read with its surrounding chapter.
Georges de La Tour’s Bible Paintings: The Candle Painter Hidden Under Other Names. Exact-work research, history and interpretive qualifications for this reading.
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