Sansovino was the leading Venetian sculptor of the Renaissance, though his fame was overshadowed by that of his contemporary, Michelangelo. The subject of St Anne with her daughter, the Virgin and the Christ Child in Italian Renaissance art is best known through several paintings by Leonardo da Vinci from which Sansovino's treatment is ultimately derived. Indeed, Sansovino's sculpture was criticised for having a crowded, painterly effect with an unsophisticated handling of the surface planes. This example has a solid, weighty quality in contrast to the contrived grace of the Baroque period.