LEONARDO

DA VINCI’
PORTRAITS
 THE MONA LISA (LA GIOCONDA)
• Is a half-length portrait painting by the Italian Renaissance
artist Leonardo da Vinci that has been described as "the best
known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung
about, the most parodied work of art in the world."
• The painting is a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of
Francesco del Giocondo, and is in oil on a white Lombardy
poplar panel. It had been believed to have been painted
between 1503 and 1506; however, Leonardo may have
continued working on it as late as 1517. Recent academic work
suggests that it would not have been started before 1513. It
was acquired by King Francis I of France and is now the
property of the French Republic, on permanent display at the
Louvre Museum in Paris since 1797.
• The subject's expression, which is frequently described as
enigmatic, the monumentality of the composition, the subtle
modelling of forms, and the atmospheric illusionism were novel
qualities that have contributed to the continuing fascination
and study of the work.
 LADY WITH AN ERMIN

• Is a painting by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci from around

1489–1490 and one of Poland's national treasures. The
portrait's subject is Cecilia Gallerani, painted at a time when
she was the mistress of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, and
Leonardo was in the Duke's service. It 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 Lady with an Ermine was donated on 29 of December

2016 to the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage by
Prince Adam Karol Czartoryski, the last direct descendant of
Izabela Czartoryska Flemming and Adam Jerzy Czartoryski,
who brought the painting to Poland from Italy in 1798.
 GINEVRA BENCI

• Is a painting by Leonardo da Vinci around 1475,

at the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
The painting is inspired by the Young Sculpture
with a flower bouquet made by Andrea del
Verrocchio, the artist who influenced
Leonardo.
• The painted painting on poplar wood was
mutilated by removing the lower part by
sawing, probably because of its precarious
condition. It is believed that the origin of the
painting had the proportion of sides 3x4,4, ie
the dimensions of 38.8 x 58 cm.
 LA BELLE FERRONNIÈRE

• Is a portrait of a lady, usually attributed to Leonardo da Vinci,

in the Louvre Abu Dhabi. It is also known as Portrait of an
Unknown Woman. The painting's title, applied as early as the
seventeenth century, identifying the sitter as the wife or
daughter of an ironmonger (a ferronnier), was said to be
discreetly alluding to a reputed mistress of Francis I of France,
Lucrezia Crivelli, married to a certain Le Ferron.
• Although the model of the painting La Belle Ferronniere is still
shrouded in mystery, the landmark exhibition "Leonardo Da
Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan" (National Gallery, London,
9 Nov. 2011 – 5 Feb. 2012) listed the portrait as possibly
depicting Beatrice d'Este, wife of Ludovico Sforza.
 HEAD OF A WOMAN

• The Head of a Woman — also known as La Scapigliata

— is a painting in oil on wood by the Italian Renaissance
master Leonardo da Vinci, dating from around c. 1508 and
housed in the Galleria Nazionale di Parma, Italy.
• The work is a finished painting in the High
Renaissance style, mentioned for the first time in
the House of Gonzaga collection in 1627. It is perhaps the
same work that Ippolito Calandra, in 1531, suggested to
hang in the bedroom of Margaret Paleologa, wife
of Federico II Gonzaga. In 1501, the marquesses wrote to
Pietro Novellara asking if Leonardo could paint
a Madonna for her private studiolo.
 ISABELLA D'ESTE

• In 1499 when the French army invaded Italy, on his way to

Venice he stopped at Mantua, where Isabella d'Este
asked him to paint her portrait. This famous drawing is a
sketch for the portrait that was never painted; despite its
fragile state of conservation, it is one of Leonardo's finest
head-and-shoulders portraits, here with the head in
profile. It is also the only known drawing by the master
that is highlighted with several colored pigments.
• The portrait in profile may have been the choice of the
Marchesa herself, who was thus portrayed on the bronze
medal made by Gian Cristoforo Romano in 1497-1498.