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Concept
Lady with an Ermine
Summary
The Lady with an Ermine is a portrait painting widely attributed to the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci. Dated to 1489–1491, the work is painted in oils on a panel of walnut wood. Its subject is Cecilia Gallerani, a mistress of Ludovico Sforza ("Il Moro"), Duke of Milan; Leonardo was painter to the Sforza court in Milan at the time of its execution. It is the second of only four surviving portraits of women painted by Leonardo, the others being Ginevra de' Benci, La Belle Ferronnière and the Mona Lisa.
Lady with an Ermine is now housed at the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków, and is one of Poland's national treasures. It is part of the Princes Czartoryski Collection, which was sold for €100 million (5% of the estimated market value of the entire collection) on 29 December 2016 to the Polish government by Princes Czartoryski Foundation, represented by Adam Karol Czartoryski, the last direct descendant of Izabela Czartoryska Flemming and Adam George Czartoryski, who brought the painting to Poland from Italy in 1798.
The painting was executed in oils on a somewhat small, 54 × 39 cm (21 × 15 in) walnut wood panel. It depicts a half-height woman turned toward her right at a three-quarter angle, but with her face turned toward her left. The animal in her arms twists in a similar manner, resulting in considerable contrapposto with the lady, a technique Leonardo explored earlier with the angel in the Virgin of the Rocks. The work is prepared with a layer of white gesso and a layer of brownish underpaint. In general, the paint is evenly applied akin to the Mona Lisa, though certain areas of the lady's skin are more layered. Also present are the subtle remains of spolvero (in the outline of the face and head), underdrawing (in the right arm, right hand, left hand, top of nose and edge of the hair), and fingerprints (the face and animal's head), the latter of which are particularly common in Leonardo's paintings. It is made from a single piece of walnut wood; Leonardo recommended, and favored walnut wood, though it was not commonly used by other artists in Lombardy.
Official source
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