A portrait of Cecilia Gallerani, the sixteen-year-old mistress of Ludovico Sforza, holding an ermine — an emblem of the duke and a pun on her surname via the Greek galé. The sitter turns sharply as if responding to someone entering the room, an animating device with no real precedent in portraiture. The plain black background is a later overpainting.
A portrait of Cecilia Gallerani, the sixteen-year-old mistress of Ludovico Sforza, holding an ermine — an emblem of the duke and a pun on her surname via the Greek galé. The sitter turns sharply as if responding to someone entering the room, an animating device with no real precedent in portraiture. The plain black background is a later overpainting.Read more
