Lady with an Ermine - wikipedia Lady with an Ermine Lady with an Ermine Italian : Dama con l'ermellino, Polish : Dama z gronostajem Artist Leonardo da Vinci Year 1489 -- 90 Type Oil on wood panel Subject Cecilia Gallerani 54 cm × 39 cm ( 21 in × 15 in ) Location National Museum, Kraków, Poland Lady with an Ermine ( Italian : Dama con l'ermellino ( ˈdaːma kon lermelˈliːno ) ; Polish : Dama z gronostajem ) is a painting by Leonardo da Vinci from around 1489 -- 1490 and one of Poland 's national treasures. The subject of the portrait is Cecilia Gallerani, painted at a time when she was the mistress of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, and Leonardo was in the service of the duke. The painting is one of only four portraits of women painted by Leonardo, the others being the Mona Lisa, the portrait of Ginevra de ' Benci, and La belle ferronnière. The painting was purchased in 2016 from the Czartoryski Foundation by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage for the National Museum in Kraków and has been on display in the museum 's main building since 2017. Contents 1 Subject and symbolism 2 Conservation 3 Provenance 4 Reception 5 Popular culture 6 Notes 7 References 8 External links Subject and symbolism The small portrait generally called The Lady with the Ermine was painted in oils on wooden panel. At the time of its painting, the medium of oil paint was relatively new to Italy, having been introduced in the 1470s. The subject has been identified with reasonable certainty as Cecilia Gallerani, who was the mistress of Leonardo 's employer, Ludovico Sforza. Cecilia Gallerani was a member of a large family that was neither wealthy nor noble. Her father served for a time at the Duke 's court. At the time her portrait was painted, she was about 16 years old and was renowned for her beauty, her scholarship, and her poetry. She was married at approximately age six to a young nobleman of the house of Visconti, but she sued to annul the marriage in 1487 for undisclosed reasons and the request was granted. Cecilia became the mistress of the Duke and bore him a son, even after his marriage to another woman 11 years previously, Beatrice d'Este. Beatrice was promised to the Duke when she was only 5, and married him when she was 16 in 1491. After a few months, she discovered the Duke was still seeing Cecilla, and forced the Duke to break off their relationship by marrying her off to a local count named Bergamino. The painting shows a half - length figure, the body of a woman turned at a three - quarter angle toward her right, but her face turned toward her left. Her gaze is directed neither straight ahead, nor toward the viewer, but toward a `` third party '' beyond the picture 's frame. In her arms, Gallerani holds a small white - coated stoat, known as an ermine. Gallerani 's dress is comparatively simple, revealing that she is not a noblewoman. Her coiffure, known as a coazone, confines her hair smoothly to her head with two bands of hair bound on either side of her face and a long plait at the back. Her hair is held in place by a fine gauze veil with a woven border of gold - wound threads, a black band, and a sheath over the plait. There are several interpretations of the significance of the ermine in her portrait. The ermine, a stoat in its winter coat, was a traditional symbol of purity because it was believed an ermine would face death rather than soil its white coat. In his old age, Leonardo compiled a bestiary in which he recorded : MODERATION The ermine out of moderation never eats but once a day, and it would rather let itself be captured by hunters than take refuge in a dirty lair, in order not to stain its purity. He repeats this idea in another note, `` Moderation curbs all the vices. The ermine prefers to die rather than soil itself. '' Ermines were kept as pets by the aristocracy and their white pelts were used to line or trim aristocratic garments. For Ludovico il Moro, the ermine had a further personal significance in that he had been in the Order of the Ermine ( Naples ) in 1488 and used it as a personal emblem. The association of the ermine with Cecilia Gallerani could have been intended to refer both to her purity and to make an association with her lover. Alternatively, the ermine could be a pun on her name because the Ancient Greek term for ermine, or other weasel - like species of animals, is galê ( γαλῆ ) or galéē ( γαλέη ). This would be in keeping with Leonardo 's placement of a juniper bush behind the figure in his portrait of Ginevra de Benci in reference to her name. Given that Gallerani gave birth to a son acknowledged by Lodovico in May 1491, and the association of weasels and pregnancy in Italian Renaissance culture, it also is possible the animal was a symbol of Cecilia 's pregnancy. In addition, it has been speculated that the animal in the painting appears not to be an ermine, but a white ferret, a colour favoured in the Middle Ages because of the ease of seeing the white animal in thick undergrowth. As in many of Leonardo 's paintings, the composition comprises a pyramidic spiral and the sitter is caught in the motion of turning to her left, reflecting Leonardo 's lifelong preoccupation with the dynamics of movement. The three - quarter profile portrait was one of his many innovations. Il Moro 's court poet, Bernardo Bellincioni, was the first to propose that Cecilia is poised as if listening to an unseen speaker. This work in particular shows Leonardo 's expertise in painting the human form. The outstretched hand of Cecilia was painted with great detail. Leonardo paints every contour of each fingernail, each wrinkle around her knuckles, and even the flexing of the tendon in her bent finger. According to the art - critic Maike Vogt - Luerssen the depicted lady clearly identifies herself as a member of the Royal Neapolitan House of Aragon by wearing a Catalan costume and holding the most important symbol of her dynasty, the ermine in its winter fur. Her name is Giovanna of Aragon ( 1478 -- 1518 ), Queen of Naples, and she was married to Ferrandino ( or Ferdinand II ) of Naples. Conservation The Lady with an Ermine has been subjected to two detailed laboratory examinations. The first was in the Warsaw Laboratories, the findings being published by K. Kwiatkowski in 1955. The painting underwent examination and restoration again in 1992, at the Washington National Gallery Laboratories under the supervision of David Bull. The painting is in oil on a thin walnut wood panel, about 4 -- 5 millimetres ( 0.16 -- 0.20 in ) thick, prepared with a layer of white gesso and a layer of brownish underpaint. The panel is in good condition apart from a break to the upper left side of the painting. Its size has never been altered, as indicated by a narrow unpainted strip on all four sides of the painting. The background was thinly overpainted with unmodulated black, probably between 1830 and 1870, when the damaged corner was restored. Eugène Delacroix was suggested to have painted the background. Its previous colour was a bluish grey. The signature `` LEONARD D'AWINCI '' ( which is Polish phonetical transcription of the name `` da Vinci '' ) in the upper left corner is not original. X-ray and microscopic analysis have revealed the charcoal - pounced outline of the pricked preparatory drawing on the prepared undersurface, a technique Leonardo learned in the studio of Verrocchio. Apart from the black of the background and some abrasion caused by cleaning, the painted surface reveals the painting is almost entirely by the artist 's hand. There has been some slight retouching of her features in red, and the edge of the veil in ochre. Some scholars believe there also was some later retouching of the hands. Leonardo 's fingerprints have been found in the surface of the paint, indicating he used his fingers to blend his delicate brushstrokes. Provenance The painting was acquired in Italy by Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, the son of Princess Izabela Czartoryska and Prince Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski in 1798, and incorporated it into the Czartoryskis ' family collections at Puławy in 1800. The inscription on the top - left corner of the painting, LA BELE FERONIERE. LEONARD DAWINCI., probably was added by a restorer shortly after its arrival in Poland, and before the background was overpainted. Czartoryski was clearly aware it was a Leonardo, although the painting had never been discussed in print ; no record exists of any previous owner. The Belle Ferronière is the Leonardo portrait in the Louvre, whose sitter bears such a close resemblance, the Czartoryskis considered this sitter to be the same. The painting travelled extensively during the 19th century ; Princess Czartoryska rescued it in advance of the invading Russian army in 1830, hid it, then sent it to Dresden and on to the Czartoryski place of exile in Paris, the Hôtel Lambert, returning it to Kraków in 1882. In 1939, almost immediately after the German occupation of Poland, it was seized by the Nazis and sent to the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin. In 1940, Hans Frank, the Governor General of Poland, requested it be returned to Kraków, where it hung in his suite of offices. At the end of the Second World War it was discovered by Allied troops in Frank 's country home in Bavaria. It has since been returned to Poland at the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków. Since May 2017, the painting may be found in a branch of the National Museum in Kraków, just outside the Old Town. Reception When exhibited in The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in 2003, the painting was described as `` signal ( ling ) a breakthrough in the art of psychological portraiture ''. Popular culture Lady with an Ermine was one of the visual inspirations for Philip Pullman 's concept of dæmons, appearing in the His Dark Materials series of novels. Mike Resnick 's science fiction novel Lady with an Alien ( 2005 ) was inspired by Resnick 's opinion that the animal in Gallerani 's arms `` simply does n't look like an ermine ''. Lady with an Ermine has inspired Vinci ( 2004 ), a Polish heist comedy film directed by Juliusz Machulski. The 2016 psychological horror video game Layers of Fear features a perversion of Lady with an Ermine as an example of the protagonist 's insanity and musophobia. Lady with an Ermine is also an attainable Steam badge in the game. Lady with an Ermine appears in the novel Fatherland ( 1992 ) by Robert Harris. In Terry Pratchett 's Thief of Time, Lady LeJean is based on Woman Holding Ferret by Leonard of Quirm, a parody of this painting. Notes ^ Jump up to : Preservation and Scientific examinations, David Bull Jump up ^ `` Da Vinci 's Lady with an Ermine among Poland 's `` Treasures '' - Event - Culture.pl ``. Retrieved 18 November 2017. Jump up ^ `` Leonarda da Vinci, `` Dama z gronostajem '' ``. Muzeum Narodowe w Krakowie ( in Polish ). 2017. Retrieved 2017 - 05 - 26. Jump up ^ M. Kemp, entry for The Lady with an Ermine in the exhibition Circa 1492 : Art in the Age of Exploration ( Washington - New Haven - London ) pp 271f, states `` the identification of the sitter in this painting as Cecilia Gallerani is reasonably secure ; '' Janice Shell and Grazioso Sironi, `` Cecilia Gallerani : Leonardo 's Lady with an Ermine '' Artibus et Historiae 13 No. 25 ( 1992 : 47 -- 66 ) discuss the career of this identification since it was first suggested in 1900. Jump up ^ Who was Cecilia Gallerani ?, Barbara Fabjan and Pietro C. Marani, Exhibition notes, October 15, 1998 Jump up ^ Notes for a portrait : the Lady 's dress and hairstyle, Grazietta Butazzi, Exhibition notes, 1998 Jump up ^ Boria Sax, The Mythical Zoo : an encyclopedia of animals in world myth, legend, and literature, 2001, s.v. `` Beaver, porcupine, badger and miscellaneous rodents ''. Jump up ^ James Beck, `` The Dream of Leonardo da Vinci '', Artibus et Historiae 14 No. 27 ( 1993 : 185 -- 198 ) p. 188 ; Beck adds, `` the artist left a pictorial record to accompany his written testimony -- the famous Portrait of a Lady with an ermine ( Czartoryski Collection, Cracow ) Jump up ^ Beck 1009 : 191. Jump up ^ A. Rona, `` l'investitura di Lodovico il Moro dell'Ordine dell'Armellino '' Archivio Storico Lombardo 103 ( 1979 : 346 - 58 ) ; as political allegory, see C. Pedretti, `` La Dama dell'Ermellino come allegoria politica '', Studi politici in onore di Luigi Firpo I, Milan 1990 : 161 - 81, both noted by Ruth Wilkins Sullivan, in `` Three Ferrarese Panels on the Theme of ' Death Rather than Dishonour ' and the Neapolitan Connection '' Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 57. 4 ( 1994 : 610 -- 625 ) p. 620 and note 68. Jump up ^ http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/morph?l=galh&la=greek#lexicon Liddell, Scott and Jones Ancient Greek dictionary Jump up ^ Jacqueline Musacchio, `` Weasels and Pregnancy in Renaissance Italy '', Renaissance Studies 15 ( 2001 ) : 172 -- 187. Jump up ^ Tracy Godse. `` Ermine or Ferret ? '' FerretsMagazine.com Jump up ^ `` The first lady of the Renaissance visits Spain ''. El País. Retrieved 11 Feb 2012. Jump up ^ David Bull, Two Portraits by Leonardo : `` Ginevra de ' Benci '' and the `` Lady with an Ermine '' Artibus et Historiae 13 No. 25 ( 1992 : 67 -- 83 ), pp 76ff. Jump up ^ Bull 1993 : 81. Jump up ^ Shell and Sironi 1992. Jump up ^ Bull 1992 : 78. Jump up ^ Leonardo da Vinci and the Splendour of Poland Archived 2009 - 02 - 15 at the Wayback Machine., exhibition February 17, 2003 Jump up ^ Robert Butler ( 2007 - 12 - 03 ). `` An Interview with Philip Pullman ''. Intelligent Life. Archived from the original on 2008 - 03 - 05. Retrieved 2012 - 07 - 01. Jump up ^ Lady with an Alien, by Mike Resnick, published 2005 by Watson - Guptill References Laurie Schneier Adams, Italian Renaissance Art, ( Boulder : Westview Press ) 2001. External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lady with an Ermine. Czartoryski Museum BBC article on Lady with an Ermine Article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on the painting and its history San Francisco Chronicle on wartime threat to the work Leonardo da Vinci List of works Science and inventions Personal life Paintings Medusa The Annunciation The Baptism of Christ The Madonna of the Carnation Ginevra de ' Benci Benois Madonna The Adoration of the Magi St. Jerome in the Wilderness Madonna Litta Virgin of the Rocks Portrait of a Musician Lady with an Ermine The Madonna and Child with the Infant St. John the Baptist The Holy Infants Embracing La Belle Ferronnière Salvator Mundi Madonna of the Yarnwinder The Virgin and Child with St. Anne Mona Lisa Head of a Woman ( La Scapigliata ) Leda and the Swan St. John the Baptist Works on walls The Last Supper Sala delle Asse The Battle of Anghiari Sculptures Sforza monument ( unexecuted ) Horse and Rider Rearing Horse and Mounted Warrior Works on paper Vitruvian Man Portrait of a Young Fiancée The Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist Head of Christ The Martyrdom of St Sebastian Self - portrait Studies of the Fetus in the Womb Manuscripts Codex Arundel Codex Atlanticus Codex on the Flight of Birds Codex Leicester Codex Madrid Codex Trivulzianus A Treatise on Painting Museums Museo Nazionale Scienza e Tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci ( Milan ) Museo Ideale Leonardo da Vinci ( Vinci ) Other projects De divina proportione Architonnerre Leonardo 's crossbow Leonardo 's fighting vehicle Leonardo 's robot Leonardo 's self - propelled cart Octant projection Viola organista Leonardeschi Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio Cesare da Sesto Giampietrino Giovanni Agostino da Lodi Bernardino Luini Cesare Magni Marco d'Oggiono Francesco Melzi Giovanni Ambrogio de Predis Salaì Andrea Solari Posthumous fame Cultural references Mona Lisa replicas and reinterpretations Things named after Leonardo BNF : cb13512023s ( data ) GND : 4412048 - 5 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lady_with_an_Ermine&oldid=836137850 '' Categories : Paintings by Leonardo da Vinci Paintings of the National Museum, Kraków Collection of the Czartoryski Museum Art and cultural repatriation after World War II 1485 paintings 15th - century portraits Mammals in art Portraits of women Hidden categories : CS1 Polish - language sources ( pl ) Webarchive template wayback links Articles containing Italian - language text Articles containing Polish - language text Articles containing Ancient Greek - language text Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Talk Contents About Wikipedia Azərbaycanca বাংলা Беларуская Български Brezhoneg Català Čeština Dansk Deutsch Ελληνικά Español Esperanto فارسی Français Galego 한국어 Հայերեն Hrvatski Italiano עברית ქართული Қазақша Lietuvių Magyar Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Polski Português Română Русский Simple English Slovenčina Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska Українська Tiếng Việt 中文 32 more Edit links This page was last edited on 12 April 2018, at 21 : 52 ( UTC ). Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: where is the lady with an ermine located
Answer: the National Museum in Kraków