Lady with an Ermine

Leonardo da Vinci's 'Lady with an Ermine' (c. 1489–1491), one of only four autograph female portraits by the master, depicts Cecilia Gallerani, the teenage mistress of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan. The white ermine she cradles is at once Sforza's own heraldic device of the Order of the Ermine, a symbol of purity, and a learned pun on the Greek word 'galê' (weasel), which echoes Cecilia's surname. Held by the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków since 1798, it is Poland's most celebrated national treasure — and among the most psychologically alert of all Renaissance portraits.

Exhibition Venue

Czartoryski Museum

Kraków, Poland