Saint Anne with the Virgin and Child

c. 1512

Pen and brown ink

111 × 136 mm

Praun-, Esterházy collection

These sketches for a sculptural decoration for an altarpiece show the same composition in a different state of development. They were originally drawn on the same piece of paper. The versos of the sheets belong together, and they bear an autograph draft of a letter by Veit Stoss, in which he petitions the Council of Nuremberg to call someone as a witness to testify in the artist’s lawsuit. There is no sculpture known with the same composition. The drawings are especially precious items in the Budapest collection, as only five drawings by Veit Stoss are known.