Visit the MFAH over Labor Day Weekend
The entire MFAH campus is open regular hours this Saturday and Sunday.
On Monday, September 6, the museum is open from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
and Cafe Express is open from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
10th Anniversary FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION Celebrating the first 10 years of the unique partnership between the MFAH and American Institute of Architects, Houston, this exhibition showcases works designed by internationally renowned architects, including Frank Gehry and Eliel Saarinen. View the full TOP 10 list
Lady with an Ermine (Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani)
Artist, inventor, philosopher, and mathematician, Leonardo da Vinci exemplifies the Renaissance notion of the artist as a creative intellectual. Leonardo´s Lady with an Ermine depicts Cecilia Gallerani, mistress of Ludovico Sforza, the duke of Milan. Cecilia gently cradles an ermine, an image ripe with meaning. To Leonardo the ermine was a symbol of moderation and purity. The animal is also a pun on the sitter´s surname, because the Greek word for ermine (galee) is similar to the Italian "Gallerani." In addition, the ermine also serves as an emblem of the duke, having been endowed with the Order of the Ermine in 1488.
Leonardo captures Cecilia´s beauty and intelligence with an unparalleled knowledge of science and nature. He radically departs from the conventions of 15th-century portraiture, rendering the sitter from a three-quarters view, instead of strict profile. She twists her upper body to glance at something outside of the picture plane, and a warm light imbues the image with a sculptural quality. This work has appropriately been called the "first modern portrait."
Poland´s connection to Leonardo´s Lady with an Ermine is long and complex. Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski purchased the painting around 1800—1802, probably in Italy. His mother, Izabela Czartoryska, placed it in the museum that she founded at her country estate in Pulawy in 1802.
During the November Uprising of 1830, Russian authorities confiscated the Czartoryski estates and the painting was sent for safekeeping in Paris. Izabela´s grandson Wladyslaw returned the collection to Poland in 1876 and opened The Princes Czartoryski Museum in Cracow.
During World War I, Lady with an Ermine was taken for safekeeping to the Dresden Gallery. Just before the outbreak of World War II, it was again hidden by the family but in September 1939 fell into the hands of the Nazis and was designated for Hitler´s museum in Linz. After the war the painting was found by the Polish American commission in Bavaria and in 1946 was restored to The Princes Czartoryski Museum.
In 1989, after the fall of the Iron Curtain, Prince Adam Karol Czartoryski and the Polish government created a foundation to maintain the Czartoryski collection in the public domain. Having survived two tumultuous centuries, Lady with an Ermine has become an icon of the Polish people, an embodiment of their rich artistic heritage and an enduring symbol of survival.
