The cartoon may have been intended as the design for a picture but it was never pricked for transfer to canvas.

Leonardo repeated the theme of the Virgin and St. Anne with the Holy Children in a cartoon the following year, and then began a picture for Louis XII of France which now hangs in the Louvre and was unfinished at Leonardo's death. Presented by the Art Fund following a public campaign.

Provenance

Inherited by Francesco da Melzi; apparently in Milan until its appearance in the Sagrado collection, Venice, before 1726; collection of Robert Udny; Royal Academy.


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