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The marble group of the Virgin and Child with St Anne in Orsanmichele is Francesco da Sangallo's earliest independent and dated work. It is signed on the belt of St Anne: FRANCISCVS FACIEBAT and dated on the back of the socle: MDXXVI.
The cult of St Anne in Florence derived its popularity from the expulsion of the Duke of Athens on the feast of St Anne in 1343. An altar to St Anne was erected in Orsanmichele in the following year. Francesco da Sangallo's group was commissioned in 1522 in substitution for a wooden group of the Virgin and Child with St Anne which then stood on the altar. The original wooden altar was replaced by the present marble altar in 1586.
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