The theme of the Holy Kinship was a common one in late 15th and early 16th century Netherlandish painting and was also used by Willem Key. The story usually consists of the families of the three marriages of St. Anne, mother of the Virgin Mary. The story is from the golden legend, where St. Anne married for the second time to Cleophas whose own daughter, Mary, was the mother of the Apostles, St. James the Less, St. Simon and St. Jude. The third marriage was to Salome whose daughter, Mary, married Zebedee, and their children were St. James the Greater and St. John the Evangelist. It was the convention to depict Christ’s generation as young children watched over by their mothers, the three Marys.

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