Why it matters
Leonardo shows Saint Anne, her daughter the Virgin and the infant Christ, who grasps a lamb symbolising his Passion. The theme preoccupied him for years: he left the painting unfinished after working on it from about 1501 to 1519.
Did you know?
- It was commissioned as the high altarpiece for the church of Santissima Annunziata in Florence.
- In 2008 a Louvre curator found faint sketches on the back, including a horse's head and half a skull, very probably by Leonardo.
- Leonardo explored the composition in a large drawing, the Burlington House Cartoon, now in the National Gallery in London.
Based on the Wikipedia article The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne (Leonardo) (CC BY-SA 4.0).
