Leonardo’s Ladies

Excellent three-part online course from Paula Nuttall looking at the main three Leonardo de Vinci portraits of women.

Paula spent a session on each of the ladies, Ginevra de’Benci (shown here), Cecilia Gallerani, usually called The Lady with the Ermine and the Mona Lisa. In each case she placed the portrait within Leonardo’s career and explained how it showed artistic techniques he was exploring at the time. She also told us about the ladies themselves and discussed why the pictures were commissioned and by who.

In each case she also talked about the condition of the works and recent scientific studies of them. We looked at what the Ginerva de’Benci might have looked like before it was cut down, how 19th century conservation work has damaged Cecilia Gallerani particulary adding the dark background and weird chin strap and finally what the Mona Lisa might look like without the layers of dark varnish and why is in unlikely anyone would dare to clean it.

 

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