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What This Painting Reveals About Leonardo da Vinci’s Brilliance
Artistic innovations that redefined portraiture
This is a portrait of a reaction. You can almost feel her body turning towards whatever has caught her attention. A sense of emotion is introduced in the slight tilt of her head and the subtle, self-controlled smile on her mouth.
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 far less known. In my opinion it deserves to be just as admired — if not more so — as an outstanding example of composition, movement and poised expression.
Composition and posture
The painting was commissioned by Leonardo’s long-term client, 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 — since the animal may be emblematic of the duke himself. The way she cradles the ermine also humanises her connection to it and sets a mood of tenderness.
