Lady with an Ermine

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 largely confined to the background, which was likely originally bluish-grey and was later overpainted in black. It had always been known that Leonardo painted a portrait of Cecilia Gallerani. However, the Lady with an Ermine remained largely unknown to scholars until nearly the 20th century, and only then was it widely accepted as his work.

Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski acquired the painting in Italy in 1798, and it entered the Czartoryski family collections at Puławy in 1800. It travelled widely during the 19th century, including to the family's place of exile at the Hôtel Lambert in Paris, before being brought to Kraków in 1876. The Nazis seized it in 1939, and it hung in the Wawel Castle offices of Hans Frank, Governor-General of occupied Poland. Allied troops recovered it at Frank's country home in Bavaria at the end of the Second World War, and it was returned to Poland in 1946, where it remained on display in Kraków. In 2016 the Princes Czartoryski Foundation, which legally owned the painting, sold it to the Polish government, together with other works from the collection, for €100 million. Lady with an Ermine is on permanent display at the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków, a branch of the National Museum in Kraków, and is considered one of Poland's national treasures.

Description

Composition

The painting was executed in oils on a relatively small, 54.8 cm × 40.3 cm (21.6 in × 15.9 in) walnut wood panel. It depicts a half-height woman turned toward her right at a three-quarter angle, but with her face turned toward her left. The animal in her arms twists in a similar manner, resulting in considerable contrapposto with the lady, a technique Leonardo explored earlier with the angel in the Virgin of the Rocks. The work is prepared with a layer of white gesso and a layer of brownish underpaint. In general, the paint is evenly applied akin to the Mona Lisa, though certain areas of the lady's skin are more layered. Also present are the subtle remains of spolvero (in the outline of the face and head), underdrawing (in the right arm, right hand, left hand, top of nose and edge of the hair), and fingerprints (the face and animal's head), the latter of which are particularly common in Leonardo's paintings. It is made from a single piece of walnut wood; Leonardo recommended and favored walnut wood, though it was not commonly used by other artists in Lombardy. The wood is thin (about 4–5 millimetres (0.16–0.20 in)) and is most likely from the same tree as the wood for his later portrait, La Belle Ferronnière. The Lady with an Ermine is also connected to La Belle Ferronnière, as well as Leonardo's earlier Portrait of a Musician, due to the three paintings including black backgrounds.

Though there are a few areas of minor damage, art historian Frank Zöllner insists the work is in "very good condition... similar to the equally well preserved Mona Lisa". Such an evaluation is relatively recent, however, as the work was previously considered to be considerably damaged and repainted. Promotion of such an analysis largely began with the art historian Kenneth Clark, who asserted in 1961 that the entire left side of the figure, as well as the background had been repainted. Scholars such as Adolfo Venturi, Angela Ottino della Chiesa and Jack Wasserman advanced the idea; however, a 1992 technical analysis at the National Gallery of Art led by David Bull has confirmed that the damage was limited to the background. Specifically, the background was likely originally a bluish-grey, overpainted with black during the mid-18th century. The signature LEONARD D'AWINCI in the top left corner was probably also added at this time. There is also slight overpainting in the mouth and nose; some art historians suggest Eugène Delacroix was responsible for the overpaint in the background and elsewhere. The background was also subject to the misconception that it originally included a window. It was proposed by Kazimierz Kwiatkowski, who led 1955 X-ray testing at Warsaw Laboratories, and explained certain spots in the right background as being remnants of a window. Such a conclusion has been disproven by Bull, Pietro C. Marani and others. In light of this revision—with the primary damage being overpaint in the background—the art historian Martin Kemp noted that "the picture is in much better condition than the standard accounts suggest, and gives the clearest indication of the freshly brilliant quality of Leonardo's painting during his period at the Sforza court in Milan".

The Lady

The subject has been identified with reasonable certainty as Cecilia Gallerani, the mistress of Leonardo's Milanese employer, Ludovico Sforza. She looks to her left at something out of frame, toward the light, where the biographer Walter Isaacson suggests Ludovico is. Following the marriage of Isabella of Aragon, Duchess of Milan and Gian Galeazzo Sforza, her 'Spanish style' dress would have been particularly fashionable. She has a silk sbernia on over her left shoulder, though Leonardo has simplified the traditional manner of wearing—where it would be draped over both shoulders—potentially to avoid too much complication in the various elements of the painting. Her right shoulder shows an ornately embroidered gold band over a velvet dress. Again, Leonardo has simplified the design, by having the left shoulder band covered by the sbernia, so as to not take away from the animal's detailed head. Her coiffure, known as a coazzone, confines her hair smoothly to her head with two bands of it bound on either side of her face and a long plait at the back. Her hair is held in place by a fine gauze veil with a woven border of gold-wound threads, a black band, and a sheath over the plait.

As in many of Leonardo's paintings, the composition comprises a pyramidic spiral and the sitter is caught in the motion of turning to her left, reflecting Leonardo's lifelong preoccupation with the dynamics of movement. The three-quarter profile portrait was one of his many innovations. Il Moro's court poet, Bernardo Bellincioni, was the first to propose that Cecilia was poised as if listening to an unseen speaker. This work in particular shows Leonardo's expertise in painting the human form. The artist painted Cecilia's outstretched hand with a lot of detail, including the shape of each fingernail, the lines around her knuckles, and even the way the tendon in her bent finger moved as it bent.

A recent study brings to the forefront and supports another so far little-followed hypothesis: the heroic character of Caterina Sforza, the lioness of Romagna, is proposed as being the model of this allegorical representation in which the mental strength and beauty that were attributed to Amazons in mythology.

The ermine

The animal resting in Cecilia's arms is usually known as an ermine but appears to be an albino ferret. Commentators have noted that it is too large to be an ermine, but its size is explained by its being of a largely symbolic nature. The art historian Luke Syson notes that "Naturalism is not the point here; Leonardo has created a mythical beast, the composite of several animals he drew at this time". There are several interpretations of the ermine's significance and they are often used in combination with each other. In its winter coat, the ermine was a traditional symbol of purity and moderation, as it was believed it would face death rather than soil its white coat.

In his old age, Leonardo compiled a bestiary in which he recorded: "The ermine out of moderation never eats but once a day, and it would rather let itself be captured by hunters than take refuge in a dirty lair, in order not to stain its purity." He repeats this idea in another note, "Moderation curbs all the vices. The ermine prefers to die rather than soil itself." A drawing by Leonardo in pen and ink of c. 1490, housed at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, depicts an ermine representing these ideals by surrendering to a hunter. The ermine has also been noted to have a personal significance to Ludovico Sforza, as he would use it as a personal emblem, having been appointed by Ferdinand I as a member of the Order of the Ermine in 1488. Alternatively, the ermine could be a pun on Cecilia's surname: The Ancient Greek term for ermine, or other weasel-like species of animals, is galê (γαλῆ) or galéē (γαλέη). Such allusions were particularly popular in Renaissance culture; Leonardo himself had done something similar in his earlier work, Ginevra de' Benci, when he surrounded Ginevra with a juniper tree, or ginepro in Italian. Krystyna Moczulska suggests that the ermine follows the meaning of an ermine or weasel in classical literature, where it relates to pregnancy, sometimes as an animal that protected pregnant women. Around the time of the painting's creation, Cecilia was known to be pregnant with Ludovico's illegitimate son.

The ermine can also be understood in the context of Cecilia's marriage to Count Lodovico Bergamino, which took place soon after the birth of her son by Ludovico in 1491. The ermine was a common motif in representations of chastity in Renaissance Italy, popularized by its appearance as an attribute of Chastity in Petrarch's poem I Trionfi. Petrarch's poem, which describes Chasity as triumphing over Love, was often depicted in lavishly decorated chests (called cassone) which formed an important part of the wedding trousseau of brides from prominent backgrounds. In such a context, the ermine, as a symbol of chastity, also symbolizes marital fidelity. The presence of the ermine thus points both to Cecilia's connection with Ludovico as well as her upcoming marriage to Bergamino.