Why Was She Holding an Ermine?

Image: Leonardo da Vinci, Lady With an Ermine. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In 1490, Leonardo da Vinci was commissioned by Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, to paint a portrait of his young lover, Cecilia Gallerani. According to art historian Jacqueline Musacchio, Cecilia Gallerani was believed to be pregnant with Ludovico's child around the time Leonardo painted her portrait. Gallerani lived in the Duke’s household until the spring of 1491, when he requested Beatrice d’Este’s hand in marriage, fulfilling a political agreement between Milan and Ferrara. Historians continue to debate whether Cecilia Gallerani left the Sforza household after Ludovico's marriage or remained nearby as his mistress.  What is known is that Ludovico acknowledged the child as his own, gave him his name, and purchased a home where he and Cecilia could live together  (Musacchio, 2001). 

Strangely enough, the living arrangements of Sforza’s mistress are not the most interesting part of the story. In the famous painting, Lady with an Ermine, a young woman looks to the right. In her arms, she is clutching a small white animal identified as an ermine. For centuries, ermine fur was prized by European elites and became associated with wealth, status, and purity. In the portrait, the ermine shares her gaze and seems content to pose with her as if it were a beloved pet. Yet historians have long suspected the ermine was much more than a pet. 

The ermine itself has puzzled historians for centuries. Why would Leonardo place such an unusual animal in the arms of a young woman? Several explanations have been proposed over the centuries. Art historian Jacqueline Musacchio notes that Ludovico Sforza had been admitted to the Order of the Ermine just a few years earlier, leading some scholars to interpret the animal as a subtle reference to the Duke himself. Others have suggested that the creature is a visual pun on Cecilia Gallerani's surname, derived from the Greek word galé, meaning weasel. Both explanations remain popular today. 

More recent scholarship, however, suggests the painting may contain another layer of meaning. Rather than serving only as a symbol of Ludovico or a clever play on Cecilia's name, the ermine may also have carried associations with pregnancy, fertility, and childbirth that would have been familiar to Renaissance viewers. If so, Leonardo's famous portrait was communicating far more than modern audiences typically recognize (Musacchio, 2001). 

Leonardo rarely included details without purpose. Whether the ermine represented Ludovico Sforza, Cecilia's pregnancy, a clever linguistic joke, or several meanings at once, the little animal transformed an ordinary portrait into one of the Renaissance's greatest mysteries. More than five centuries later, historians are still debating what Leonardo intended his viewers to see. 

Further Reading

Musacchio, J. M. (2001). Weasels and pregnancy in Renaissance

Italy. Renaissance Studies, 15(2), 172–187.