High Renaissance · c. 1489-1490
Lady with an Ermine
Cecilia Gallerani turns as if someone has just entered the room. The animal in her arms turns with her.
- Made
- c. 1489-1490
- Style
- High Renaissance
- Collection
- National Museum in Kraków
From museum to game table
The in-game crop
The card adds paint spaces, rewards and a frame. This crop shows the artwork area used during play, without the card rails.
The short history
What happened here?
Leonardo painted Cecilia while working at the Milanese court of Ludovico Sforza. She was educated, wrote poetry and was Ludovico's young mistress.
The ermine may carry several meanings. It was linked with purity, with Ludovico's emblem and with a play on Cecilia's surname. Leonardo joined the animal and sitter through matching turns and long, alert hands.
The portrait was bought in Italy by Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski around 1800. It survived repeated wartime moves and Nazi seizure. It is now the only Leonardo painting in a Polish collection.
Look closer
Three details worth finding
- 1The shared turn of sitter and animal
- 2Leonardo's careful study of the hand
- 3Soft light modeling the face against darkness
Sources
Read further
Museum records come first. Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons provide useful public background and image records.