The painting is a masterpiece that transcends anything Leonardo had painted before then.
The resulting portrait – made in oil on a walnut panel – is of Ludovico’s mistress Cecilia Gallerani, though we know it today as Lady With an Ermine. Then, seven years after his arrival in Milan, Leonardo got his first painting commission. “Leonardo was at ease with being a misfit: illegitimate, gay, vegetarian, left-handed, easily distracted and at times heretical,” says Isaacson.Īround this time, Leonardo started to fill notebooks with a dizzying array of ideas and investigations into subjects that ranged from light theory to designs for flying machines and from the study of friction to human anatomy. He was also an excellent musician, dressed lavishly, was popular at court and had relationships with a series of young men, a particular favourite being Gian Giacomo Caprotti, who joined Leonardo as a 10-year-old servant in 1490. “He was a man of outstanding beauty and infinite grace,” wrote a contemporary.
In any case, Leonardo was clearly happy in Milan. Photograph: Dea Picture Library/De Agostini/Getty Images Stunning clarity: Leonardo’s Cecilia Gallerani or Lady With an Ermine.
0 kommentar(er)
