Secrets of "Ladies with an Ermine": What is hidden by a cute animal in a painting by Leonardo da Vinci

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

"Lady with an Ermine" (1489-1490) - one of the most important works of all Western art, the subject of the greatest rarity of the genius Leonardo da Vinci and one of the four famous female portraits of the master. Modern art critics are sure that the white animal appeared in the picture for a reason.

Painting transformations

To date, only a small part of the picture has remained genuine, the rest has been repeatedly retouched: the entire background was darkened, the dress was changed, and the transparent veil worn by the woman was repainted in combination with the color of her hair. Another adjustment by the unknown restorer was the addition of dark shadows between the fingers of her right hand (upon closer examination of the two lower fingers, it is noticeable that they are significantly inferior to the others). However, the most important discovery of the painting was that the Italian artist wrote the work not in one stage, but in three clearly distinguishable stages. His first version was a simple portrait without an animal. In the second stage, the artist included a small gray ermine. In the third and final iteration, the small animal reincarnated into a large white ermine. The ermine's transformation - from small and dark to muscular and white - may also indicate Duke Ludovico Sforza's desire for a more flattering portrait of his beloved.

The personality of the heroine of the picture

The heroine of the work is Cecilia Gallerani (c. 1473-1536). Her age in the picture is 16 years old. Cecilia was born in Siena (Italy), where she received a solid education, knew Latin, wrote poetry and had a musical talent. This portrait by Leonardo, whom she described as "unparalleled," created a new ideal of the courtly female portrait. Captured half-turned, with a hint of a smile, Cecilia really seems to be snatched from life. This pose was already standard for portraiture, popularized by the Dutch painters Jan van Eyck and Hans Memling. Cecilia's graceful hand strokes the ermine. Cecilia is dressed in expensive fabrics embroidered with gold thread, a necklace of rich black stones and a headdress of a thin veil. Leonardo envelops her in a blue robe, using lapis lazuli, a semi-precious stone, to make an ultramarine blue pigment. The clothes and hairstyle of the heroine are written in typical Spanish fashion of the 15th century.

Ermine symbolism

The stoat plays a key symbolic role in the decoration, so the breakthrough is extremely important, not only from a technical point of view, but also from an interpretation point of view. If you look at the close-up portrait, you can see that Cecilia and Ermine are both facing the same direction. Art critics have found that the ermine personifies the beloved model Ludovico Sforza (in 1488, just 2 years before the portrait was painted, he was awarded the badge of the Neapolitan King of the Order of the Ermine). Sometimes he called himself ermellino bianco (white ermine). In addition, the ermine hides the model's pregnancy (she soon gave birth to a son, Cesare, and the ermine has been associated with obstetrics and the protection of pregnant women since antiquity). And yet, this picture has more than just the image of a young charming woman with an animal. Leonardo, being an all-round talented person, could not do without symbolic allegories. And yet there must be more to it than a beautiful young woman and a kind of risky animal. Leonardo, being the subtle and intelligent man he was, would not have been satisfied with a lack of symbolic associations. Ermine fur was an expensive and precious material that the first persons in the state could afford. In addition, artists sometimes depicted the Virgin Mary wearing an ermine-lined cloak. Therefore, it was regarded as a symbol of purity and even chastity, which allows us to evaluate the idea of an ermine as the idea of the purity of the youngest girl. The authenticity of this version is proved by the artist's possible allusion to the name of Cecilia Gallerani (galle in Greek means "ermine").

Composition and technique

The artist uses long curved lines without using straight lines. The picture consists almost entirely of curves. The exception is a stripe on her head and a square neckline on her dress. The lines create a triangular composition of the painting. The focused light reflects on the main characters of the picture from the right side and thus softens their shapes. The artist painted his paintings using geometry and mathematical principles discovered by the ancient Greeks. The ermine's smoothly curved body and the shape of the heroine's turn were something completely new way of painting portraits, which gave rhythm to the whole composition. Such a moving composition of the portrait resembles a baroque snake (when the moving figures are marked by a strong, sometimes even unnatural rotation of the body). Leonardo paints figures at an angle. The lines guide the viewer's gaze and create the illusion that Cecilia can turn and make eye contact at any moment. This "trick" (popular in mannerism) gives the picture lightness and dynamism.

"Lady with an Ermine" is one of four portraits of Leonardo and the first Renaissance painting in which a woman embodies personality and intelligence, not just beauty. It is a charming image of sophisticated elegance, revealing the incomparable creative mind of Leonardo da Vinci.

Author: Djamilya Art