http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Virgin_and_Child_with_St_Anne_and_St_John_the_Baptist
i've probably sat in front of this drawing forty times in forty years but usually with less than full concentration
today i consciously searched the picture for fresh details and allowed my attention to spend some time in the lower "incomplete" part of the drawing
leonardo has been quoted as saying something like "art is never finished, only abandoned"
ho hum ! i'm not sure if the suggestion i'm about to make can be taken seriously ... i have no scholarly axe to grind because i am not a scholar, i don't have the mental strength to do serious research and juggle other people's ideas ... but i want to ask, are the ladies' feet cooling in a stream of water ?
someone may have suggested this before but how would i know ? ... and if they are cooling their toes, then how would roman catholics have interpreted the image six hundred ( correction: WHOOPS ! ONLY FIVE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN ... ) years ago ? your scholarly answers on a postcard, toot sweet, please ?
