This article features in the book What Great Artworks Say, an examination of art’s most enthralling images, by Christopher P Jones.
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 Wikimedia Commons
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.