What the Ermine Saw: The Extraordinary Journey of Leonardo da Vinci’s Most Mysterious Portrait

Former publishing executive Collinsworth (Behaving Badly) delivers an intriguing if occasionally dubious history of Lady with an Ermine (c. 1490), one of only four portraits of women painted by Leonardo da Vinci. Tracking the painting across five centuries, Collinsworth reveals that the portrait’s subject was most likely Cecelia Gallerani, the mistress of Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan (the ermine is a reference to one of the duke’s honors). After Gallerani lent the painting to Sforza’s sister-in-law, it fell out of the historical record for nearly two and half centuries before reemerging in the collection of Polish princess Izabela Czartoryski. Confiscated by Nazi official Hans Frank during WWII, it was recovered in Bavaria in 1945 and sent back to the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków. Collinsworth also delves into technical aspects of art restoration and conservation, explaining that a 2014 analysis revealed that the work was completed in three stages, with the ermine added late. Though Collinsworth conveys the vicissitudes of European history and the enduring fascination of da Vinci’s work, some of her anecdotes—including an allegation that Ludovico Sforza’s wife “found a numbing self-relief in sex orgies” and died soon after participating in one—strain credulity. Still, this is an entertaining and accessible study of a masterpiece. Illus. (May)