1474-76, oil on wood
National Gallery of Art
Washington, DC

“Leonardo’s portrait of Ginevra de’ Benci is the single painting by the artist in America. The young Florentine lady, who was much admired by contemporaries for her culture, beauty, and character, appears on the front of a double-sided wooden panel. She sits before a juniper bush, an evergreen that not only provides a dark foil to enhance her pale features, but also alludes to Ginevera’s name: the Italian work for juniper is ‘ginepro.’

“On the back of the panel a wreath of laurel and palm branches encircling a juniper sprig is depicted. Entwined around the plants is a scroll with a Latin inscription meaning, ‘Beauty Adorns Virtue.’ Together the plants and the text present an emblematic portrait of Ginevra; the laurel and palm are common symbols for intellectual and moral virtue, and the Latin word for beauty artfully twines about the juniper.

“The wreath is truncated at the bottom, indicating that the panel was cut down at some time after its completion in the 1470s. The portrait on the front of the panel may originally have included the sitter’s hands. Despite its less than complete state, the picture is very well preserved. Its extraordinary delicacy of color and shading was newly revealed by the cleaning and conservation treatment recently undertaken at the Gallery.”