How to Read Paintings: Lady with an Ermine by Leonardo da Vinci

This article features in the book <a href="https://www.chrisjoneswrites.co.uk/what-great-artworks-say/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">What Great Artworks Say</a>, an examination of art’s most enthralling images, by Christopher P Jones. <img alt="" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*E0kbiJcOijJtCBiqP9pr0A.jpeg" style="height:942px; width:700px" /> Lady with an Ermine (1483–1490) by Leonardo da Vinci. Oil and tempera on panel. 54.8 × 40.3 cm. National Museum, Kraków, Poland. Image source <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lady_with_an_Ermine_-_Leonardo_da_Vinci_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Wikimedia Commons</a> Leonardo da Vinci painted The Lady with an Ermine at least ten years before his most famous work, the Mona Lisa. Both portraits show a female sitter in a three-quarter profile. Yet compared to the Mona Lisa, this painting is relatively less-known. In my opinion it deserves to be just as admired— if not more so — as a masterpiece of composition, light and poised expression. The work was commissioned by Leonardo’s long-term patron, Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan. The portrait is thought to be of the duke’s 16-year-old mistress, Cecilia Gallerani. In her arms she holds a white weasel, also called an ermine, which she gently strokes — most likely a symbolic representation of the duke himself. <a href="https://medium.com/thinksheet/how-to-read-paintings-lady-with-an-ermine-by-leonardo-da-vinci-e7bd34bf6d91">Website</a>