Saint Anne with the Virgin and Child

c. 1512

Pen and brown ink

111 × 136 mm

Esterházy collection

The iconographic type of Saint Anne with the Virgin and the Infant Jesus developed in the thirteenth century and is linked with the cult of Saint Anne, which had flourished since the Middle Ages, reaching its peak around 1500. This design for a stained glass window, drawn around 1505–1509, belongs to the more archaic one of the two main types. The standing figure of Saint Anne holds the infant Jesus and is of monumental size compared to the Virgin who stands next to her. Based on this design, a stained glass window with minor changes was executed for the church of Saint Gumbert in Ansbach, near Nuremberg, around 1520. Hans Schäufelein worked in Dürer’s workshop and developed a penmanship close to his master.