Lady with an Ermine

Rare card · No. 40131

The Lady with an Ermine is a portrait painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci. Dated to c. 1489–1491, the work is painted in oils on a panel of walnut wood. Its subject is Cecilia Gallerani, a mistress of Ludovico Sforza ("Il Moro"), Duke of Milan; Leonardo was painter to the Sforza court in Milan at the time of its execution. It is the second of only four surviving portraits of women painted by Leonardo, the others being Ginevra de' Benci, La Belle Ferronnière and the Mona Lisa. The sitter is depicted at half-length, her body turned toward her right at a three-quarter angle and her face toward her left; the animal in her arms twists in a similar manner. As in many of Leonardo's paintings, the composition forms a pyramidal spiral, reflecting his lifelong preoccupation with the dynamics of movement. The painting was long considered badly damaged and repainted. A 1992 technical analysis at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. established that the damage was...

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