Saint Anne teaching Mary to read, Sicily, 18th century

This delightful alabaster group represents Saint Anne teaching Mary to read. It is a family scene, taken from the Apocryphal Gospels, which narrates an intimate moment between mother and daughter.

The sculpture is polychrome with golden highlights in the hair and on the clothes, and on the faces.

The production of this type of alabaster is almost certainly Sicilian and dates back to the 18th century. In that period the "Tippa" workshop created extraordinary works in alabaster, but also in ivory and coral.  This group, while maintaining slightly naive traits, could have a connection with this school.