Print of Leonardo da Vinci - Lady with an ermine (Cecilia Gallerani) - 1489-1490
Leonardo da Vinci - Lady with an Ermine (Cecilia Gallerani)
Year: 1489-1490 - oil on panel 40.3x54.8 cm
Preserved at: Czartoryski Museum, Krakow, Poland.
Leonardo da Vinci painted the Lady with an Ermine during his stay in Milan, between 1482 and 1499, with Ludovico il Moro, who was made a knight of the Order of the Ermine by the king of Naples, Ferdinand I of Aragon.
The lady seems to be the young lover of Ludovico il Moro, Cecilia Gallerani, who holds an ermine in her arms. The animal, in addition to being a symbol of purity and incorruptibility, would allude to the girl's surname (ermine in Greek is called galḗ (γαλή), as the beginning of the girl's surname, and perhaps also to her lord and lover, belonging to the 'Order of the Ermine.