CABALLERO, Julianne BS Architecture

2023-04266 November 9, 2023

ARTS 1 Midterm – Project Remake

Remake of 15th century painting, “Lady and Ermine”, by Leonardo da Vinci.

Reinterpreting the painting

“Lady and Ermine” is a painting thought to be of Cecilia Gallerani, who
was known to be one of the mistresses of Milanese duke Ludovico Sforza, who
was Leonardo da Vinci's employer. In the painting, Gallerani is facing to the side
in da Vinci's iconic three-quarter portrait pose. She wears a velvet dress and is
adorned with black jewelry, her hair being confined to her head with a coazone.
In her arms is a pure white ermine that mirrors her pose and head direction,
showcasing a connection between the two figures. Indeed, Gallerani was
Sforza's favorite mistress, which led him to commission the painting from da
Vinci. However, their relationship had to be kept in secrecy as Sforza was not
only an important societal figure with an image to maintain, he was also already
married to a woman named Beatrice d'Este for 11 years.

Art historians have varying interpretations of the painting. Some experts

deduced that the ermine in the painting may symbolize Sforza himself, as
Gallerani's secret lover whom she adores, with her careful hand placement over
the animal. Other perspectives on the painting state that perhaps the reason why
Gallerani is facing to the side is because she is looking at Sforza, who is not

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seen in the painting. The ermine now symbolizes Gallerani's purity and virginity.
However, at some point during Gallerani and Sforza's relationship, she got
pregnant and bore him a son, which led to Sforza's wife finding out about their
affair and separating them both. This led other art experts to think that the ermine
may have symbolized Gallerani's pregnancy.

In my reinterpretation of the painting, I considered the perspective in which

the ermine symbolizes Sforza himself. While having multiple wives may have
been the cultural norm for the men of 15th century Italy, it is an act I strongly
condemn. As the ermine in the painting is white and pure, the cat I am holding
has black spots over its body, which can be interpreted as Sforza's impurity due
to his unfaithfulness to his wife. The cat also faces front, with closed eyes, which
opposes the ermine in the painting which was facing parallel to Gallerani. This
can be taken to imply that by engaging in adultery and even bearing an
illegitimate child, Sforza was simply closing his eyes to the pain it would cause
his wife and the other women he was seeing. Gallerani grew up as neither rich
nor a noble, but she was highly regarded due to her beauty and intelligence.
Prior to being promised at a young age to another nobleman, she was a virgin
and a brilliant young woman; thus, I chose to wear white jewelry to highlight that.
Lastly, I chose that her hair would not be bound, as I would deem her hairstyle in
the original painting as rather restrictive. I believe that women should never have
to be bound by any societal rules, such as having to be promised to noblemen at
very young ages.

Creative Insights and process

Figure 1. Original picture, background removed.

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 Figure 2. Lights and shadows (manually added) to match the lighting of the original.

Figure 3. Final photo editing and added textures to recreate the feel of the original.

When I saw “Lady with an Ermine”, I already knew that I would be able to
recreate the painting using my cat friend (named Heart) from my dorm.
Unfortunately, it was not as easy as I had expected, as he would not get into a
similar position as the ermine in the painting. I then realized that I could come up
with a reinterpretation of the painting that would align with my own values if I
were to explain the reason for the cat not matching the ermine’s pose. Most of
my time spent on this recreation was spent in Photoshop, manually painting all of
the shadows to recreate the dramatic lighting in the original painting. While I was
editing, I noticed faint blue brush strokes to the rightmost of the painting, and that
was when I learned that the background color used to be a blue-gray shade and
was altered post completion. I included that detail in my recreation as well.
Overall, “Lady with an Ermine” is a fascinating time capsule for what society was
like in 15th century Italy, and it was a fun experience to re-construct it based on
my own values and interpretations.