Lady with an Ermine

Leonardo da Vinci painted this Lady with an Ermine around 1490 in Milan, depicting Cecilia Gallerani, the teenage mistress of Duke Ludovico Sforza. She holds a white ermine, a symbol of purity and also a pun on the duke's membership in the Order of the Ermine. The animal's Greek name, galê, echoes Gallerani's surname.

The portrait broke from convention by showing Cecilia in three-quarter view, turning as if someone just entered the room. Her alert expression and the ermine's tense posture create a sense of interrupted moment. Leonardo's sfumato technique softens the transitions between light and shadow on her face, a method he would perfect in the Mona Lisa years later.

The painting passed through various collections before the Czartoryski family acquired it in 1800. Nazis seized it during World War II, and Hans Frank kept it in his Krakow headquarters. After the war, Poland recovered it. The work now hangs at the National Museum in Krakow, Poland's most prized painting.