An old woman learning to read a young boy

A reading lesson This painting from the castle collection depicts an older woman teaching a little girl how to read from a book that is lying open between them. According to tradition, this is St. Anne teaching Mary, the Holy Mother, her daughter, how to read. The painting stems from the 17th century, and is signed in the right upper part as „J. v. Bronkhorst”. Jan Gerritsz van Bronckhorst (b. 1603 in Utrecht, d. 1661 in Amsterdam) was a Dutch baroque painter, he was also an engraver. He worked for six months as a glass engraver at the Utrecht glass works. In 1620, he set off on a trip to France, where he worked in Paris, also at a glass works. Having returned to Utrecht in 1622, he started studying painting (under Cornelis Poelenburg). In 1647 he moved to Amsterdam, where he worked at a Calvinist worship hall, making stained glass windows and decorating organs (protestant places of worship have very limited decorations). His paintings clearly show influence by Caravaggio, and the topics he depicts are shown intimately yet very passionately. Naturally, this does not apply to the painting discussed here, with the topic somewhat „forcing” a specific depiction of the scene. According to tradition, the parents of Mary were Joachim and Anna, who let her daughter be educated at a temple, however, the painter was at liberty to depict such a scene. It is the more problematic because protestants, to whom the painter belonged, do not have a cult of Mary as it is the case in the Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox church. The painting also shows influence of Caravaggio, in lighting, as the light source is not visible and it falls from the left, from above, lighting the entire scene, bringing out its most important components.