Lady with an Ermine

A young woman at the Milanese court

The sitter is Cecilia Gallerani, a well-educated young woman at the court of Ludovico Sforza in Milan, and his mistress around 1490. Leonardo was working for Ludovico at the time, and painted her portrait in about 1490.

The National Museum in Kraków, which holds the painting in its Czartoryski Museum, calls it the most valuable work in that collection. It is one of only a handful of portraits by Leonardo that survive, and the only work by him in Poland.

Her identity was not always known. It was confirmed only at the end of the nineteenth century, through archival research.

She turns as if someone has spoken

Cecilia’s body faces one way while her head turns sharply the other, towards a light source outside the picture. It feels as though someone has just entered the room or spoken to her. That twist gives a static portrait the sense of a passing moment.

Her hair is held close to her head under a fine veil, with a dark band across the forehead and a gold-edged border. A long string of dark beads loops around her neck. The modelling of the face is soft, with no hard lines.

An ermine, and a play on words

In her arms she holds a white ermine, which turns its head in the same direction she does. Its muscular body, small claws and alert eyes are painted with great care. Her long-fingered hand rests on its back.

The animal is more than a pet. The Kraków museum links it to Ludovico Sforza, who received the Order of the Ermine in 1488 and was nicknamed the white ermine. The Greek word for ermine, galê, also echoes her family name, Gallerani. The ermine was a traditional symbol of purity too. Several meanings overlap in one animal.

A dark background and a wrong inscription

The background is now almost black. Technical studies have suggested that this is not how Leonardo left it, and that the background was repainted later. In the upper left corner, an inscription reads “La Bele Feroniere, Leonard d’Awinci.”

That inscription was added long after Leonardo’s lifetime and confuses this portrait with a different painting, the so-called Belle Ferronnière in the Louvre. It is a reminder that the history of a painting includes the mistakes of later owners.

From Italy to Kraków

Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski bought the portrait in Italy around 1800, and it was displayed at Puławy from 1809. It later moved with the family collection to Kraków. During the Second World War it was taken by the Nazis and was among the most important works recovered afterwards.

In 2016 the Polish state bought the Czartoryski collections, and the painting became the property of the National Museum in Kraków.

Questions about Lady with an Ermine

Who is the woman?

Cecilia Gallerani, a member of the Milanese court and mistress of Ludovico Sforza.

Why is she holding an ermine?

The ermine refers to Ludovico Sforza, a member of the Order of the Ermine, plays on her name Gallerani, and symbolises purity.

Where is the original?

Czartoryski Museum, National Museum in Kraków (MNK XII-209).

When was it painted?

Around 1490, in Milan.

Sources and image credit

• National Museum in Kraków: Lady with an Ermine
• Wikimedia Commons: Lady with an Ermine

Public-domain reproduction of Lady with an Ermine (about 1490), via Wikimedia Commons. Detail images are crops of the same historical painting; no reconstruction or upscaling.