Calton of Burlington House (St. Anne, Madonna and Child with St. John),1499-1500 or 1508?

Charcoal, with white chalk heightening, on brownish paper, mounted on canvas, 141.5 x 106.5cm London, National Gallery

In the UK, many art galleries and museums are free to enter. The National Gallery, where this painting is displayed, also has no admission fee, and you can enter the museum as if you were walking down a nearby road. There is no security check on the way, and you can walk right up to this painting so easily that you start to worry about whether it is really safe.

The room in which this painting is displayed is quite far back in the museum, with no natural lighting, and the lighting in the room seems somewhat dim. In this dimly lit room, if you look to the side, you will see an unfinished oil painting by Michelangelo on display as if it were the most natural thing in the world, so you can only be impressed by the incredible depth of the British Empire.

This painting is painted on a huge piece of paper (made up of eight sheets of paper), which is quite thick and has a texture that gives the impression of a thick, sturdy paper. The fibers of the paper are somewhat uneven, thick and rough, and the entire paper seems to be glued to the canvas, but the unevenness of the surface is not completely eliminated.

Even so, I still feel that the lighting is too dim when looking at this carton. This may be unavoidable in order to protect the painting, but without a bit more effort on the lighting, the depiction of the shadow details will sink into black and the subtle shading will be impossible to read.

Also, when you look at this painting in an art book, the color varies greatly from book to book, with various interpretations ranging from yellowish to blueish, and to be honest it's hard to know which one is closest to the real thing, but when you actually see the real thing it gives off a slightly blueish impression, and doesn't seem to have a strong yellowish color.

Furthermore, while the art book gives the impression of a very soft impression, many parts are actually painted with very rough brushstrokes, and the intensity and sense of speed are so strong that it completely changes your previous view of Leonardo.
Even so, the heads of Maria and Anna are carefully shaded, as expected, but perhaps due to the lighting, the dark, bluish shadows seem very strong, and the work doesn't really have a sfumato impression.