The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist, sometimes called The Burlington House Cartoon, is a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci. The drawing is in charcoal and black and white chalk, on eight sheets of paper that are glued together. Because of its large size and format the drawing is presumed to be a cartoon for a painting. No painting by Leonardo exists that is based directly on this cartoon, although the drawing may have been in preparation for a now lost or unexecuted painting commissioned by Louis XII. The drawing is the only extant larger-scale drawing by the artist. The drawing depicts the Virgin Mary seated on the thigh of her mother, Saint Anne, while holding the Christ Child as Christ's young cousin, John the Baptist, stands to the right. It currently hangs in the National Gallery in London. It was executed either around 1499–1500, at the end of the artist's first Milanese period, or around 1506–1508, when he was travelling back and forth between Florence and Milan. The majority of scholars favour the latter date, although the National Gallery and others prefer the former. Subject The subject of the cartoon is a combination of two themes popular in Florentine painting of the fifteenth century: The Virgin and Child with John the Baptist and Virgin and Child with Saint Anne. The drawing is notable for its complex composition, demonstrating the alternation in the positioning of figures that is first apparent in Leonardo's paintings in the Benois Madonna. The knees of the two women point in different directions, with Mary's knees turning out of the painting to the left, while her body turns sharply to the right, creating a sinuous movement. The knees and the feet of the figures establish a strong up-and-down rhythm at a point in the composition where a firm foundation comprising firmly planted feet, widely spread knees, and a broad spread of enclosing garment would normally be found. While the lower halves of their bodies turn away, the faces of the two women turn toward each other, mirroring each other's features. The delineation between the upper bodies has lost clarity, suggesting that the heads are part of the same body. The twisting movement of the Virgin is echoed in the Christ Child, whose body, held almost horizontal by his mother, rotates axially, with the lower body turned upward and the upper body