John the Baptist is here depicted to the left of Child.
He simultaneously gestures to the lamb at his feet and to the infant, visually alluding to his own description of Christ as "the Lamb of God".
The Virgin's mother, St Anne, although dressed in a sixteenth-century wimple, wears her traditional robe of red, a symbol of divine love.
Garbed in green, symbolic of rebirth and eternal life, Virgin offers Child an apple.
This fruit, associated with the fall of Adam and Eve, here signifies Virgin as the new Eve and Christ as the second Adam.
Baldung's figures are symbolically, rather than realistically, depicted.
Virgin, for instance, is represented as a very young girl.
And, although John and Jesus historically were about the same age, the Baptist is portrayed as an adult to emphasize his prophetic message.
