|
|
Leonardo
da Vinci - The Lady with an Ermine
Lady with an Ermine is a painting by Leonardo da Vinci,
from around 1489–1490. The subject of the portrait
is identified as Cecilia Gallerani, and was probably
painted at a time when she was the mistress of Lodovico
Sforza, Duke of Milan and Leonardo was in the service
of the Duke.
The painting is one of only four female portraits
painted by Leonardo, the others being the Mona Lisa,
the portrait of Ginevra de' Benci and La Belle Ferronière.
It is displayed by the Czartoryski Museum, Kraków,
Poland and is cited in the museum's guide as the first
truly modern portrait. When exhibited in Museum of
Fine Arts in Huston, it was described as "signal[ling]
a breakthrough in the art of psychological portraiture".
The small portrait generally called The Lady with
the Ermine was painted in oils on wooden panel by
Leonardo da Vinci. At the time of its painting, the
medium of oil paint was relatively new to Italy, having
been introduced in the 1470s. Leonardo was one of
those artists who adopted the new medium and skillfully
exploited its qualities. The sitter has been identified
with reasonable security as Cecilia Gallerani who
was the mistress of Leonardo's employer, Lodovico
Sforza, known as Lodovico il Moro.
At the time of her portrait, Cecilia was about sixteen.
She was one of a large family, neither rich nor noble.
Her father served for a time at the Duke's court.
Cecilia was renowned for her beauty, her scholarship,
and her poetry. She was betrothed at the age of about
ten years to a young nobleman of the house of Visconti
but the marriage was called off. Cecilia became the
mistress of the Duke and bore him a son, but he chose
to marry a girl from a more noble family, Beatrice
d'Este.
The painting shows a half-length figure, the body
of the young woman turned at a three-quarter angle
towards her right, but her face turned towards her
left. Her gaze is directed neither straight ahead,
nor towards the viewer, but towards a "third
party" beyond the picture's frame. In her arms
Cecilia holds a small white creature which is described
in the painting's title as an ermine, but which may
in fact be better described as a ferret. Cecilia's
dress is comparatively simple, revealing that she
is not a noblewoman. Her coiffure, known as a "coazone",
confines her hair smoothly to her head with two bands
of hair 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.
There are several interpretations of the significance
of the ermine in her portrait. The ermine, a stoat
in its winter coat, was a traditional symbol of purity
because it was believed that an ermine would face
death rather than soil its white coat. Ermines were
kept as pets by the aristocracy and their white pelts
were used to line or trim aristocratic garments. For
Ludovico il Moro the ermine had a further personal
significance in that he had been in the Order of the
Ermine in 1488 and used it as a personal emblem. The
association of the ermine with Cecilia could have
been multiply intended, referring to her purity and
to the status of her lover. Alternatively, the ermine
could be a pun on her name because the Greek for ermine
is galay. This would be in keeping with Leonardo's
placement of a juniper bush behind the figure in his
portrait of Ginevra de Benci in reference to her name.
It has also been commented[who?] that the animal in
the painting appears to be not an ermine but a white
ferret, a colour favoured in the Middle Ages because
of the ease of seeing the white animal in thick undergrowth.
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
life-long 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 is poised as
if listening to an unseen speaker.
This work in particular shows Leonardo's expertise
in painting the human form. The outstretched hand
of Cecilia was painted with great detail. Leonardo
paints every contour of each fingernail, each wrinkle
around her knuckles, and even the flexing of the tendon
in her bent finger.
|
|
Leonardo da Vinci - Lady with an ermine
|
|
|
