Portrait of Ginevra Benci

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Portrait of Ginevra Benci: Leonardo da Vinci

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Leonardo da Vinci Oil Painting - Portrait of Ginevra Benci

Keywords: Portrait, Ginevra, Benci

Work Overview: Artist Leonardo da Vinci
Year c. 1474–8
Type Oil on panel
Dimensions 38.1 cm × 37 cm (15.0 in × 15 in)
Location National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Ginevra de' Benci is a portrait painting by Leonardo da Vinci of the 15th-century Florentine aristocrat Ginevra de' Benci (born c. 1458).[1] The oil-on-wood portrait was acquired by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., United States, in 1967. The sum of US$5 million—a record price at the time—came from the Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund and was paid to the Princely House of Liechtenstein. It is the only painting by Leonardo on public view in the Americas.[2]

It is known that Leonardo painted a portrait of Ginevra de' Benci in 1474, painted in Florence possibly to commemorate her marriage that year to Luigi di Bernardo Niccolini at the age of 16. The painting's imagery and the text on the reverse of the panel support the identification of this picture. Directly behind the young lady in the portrait is a juniper tree. The reverse of the portrait is decorated with a juniper sprig encircled by a wreath of laurel and palm and is memorialized by the phrase VIRTVTEM FORMA DECORAT ("beauty adorns virtue").

The Latin motto VIRTVTEM FORMA DECORAT, on the reverse of the portrait, also is understood as symbolizing her intellectual and moral virtue, while the sprig of juniper ("ginepro"), encircled by laurel and palm, suggests Ginevra's name. The laurel and palm are in the personal emblem of Bernardo Bembo, Venetian ambassador to Florence, whose platonic relationship with Ginevra is revealed in poems dedicated to them. Infrared examination has revealed Bembo's motto "Virtue and Honor" beneath Ginevra's. So it is likely Bembo ordered the emblematic painting on the verso of the portrait.

The researcher and cryptographer Carla Glori anagrammatized fifty Latin sentences signed VINCI, formed with the very same alphabetical letters of the motto VIRTUTEM FORMA DECORAT and having a meaning unequivocally referred to the portrait and to the biography of Ginevra Benci. The fifty anagrams, published on Academia edu, form a coherent text coincident with the reconstruction of the documented life-story of Ginevra Benci in 1474 (when the notary Simone Grazzini da Staggia in Florence stipulated "ab incarnazione", dating back to 15 January 1473, her promise of marriage), confirming the identity of the sitter.

The portrait is one of the highlights of the National Gallery of Art, and is admired by many for its portrayal of Ginevra's temperament. Ginevra is beautiful, but austere; she has no hint of a smile and her gaze, although forward, seems indifferent to the viewer.[3] A strip from the bottom of the painting was removed in the past, presumably owing to damage, and Ginevra's arms and hands were lost. Using the golden section, Susan Dorothea White has drawn an interpretation of how her arms and hands may have been positioned in the original.[citation needed] The adaptation is based on images of hands by Leonardo that are thought to have been executed as studies for this painting.

According to Giorgio Vasari, Ginevra de' Benci was also included in the fresco by Domenico Ghirlandaio of the Visitation of Mary and Elizabeth in the church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, but it is now believed that Vasari made a mistake and that Ghirlandaio painted Giovanna Tornabuoni.

As a woman of renowned beauty, Ginevra de' Benci was also the subject of ten poems written by members of the Medici circle, Cristoforo Landino and Alessandro Braccesi, and of two sonnets by Lorenzo de' Medici himself.

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One of Leonardo's earlier works completed while he was apprenticed to Andrea Verrocchio in his Florentine workshop. Here, Leonardo learned a variety of skills that he would master later on in his career. Although this painting is rather traditional, it includes details such as Ginevra's curling hair that only Leonardo could achieve.

Although a portrait of Ginevra de' Benci by Leonardo is mentioned by three sixteenth-century writers, the attribution of the Washington painting to that artist has been the cause of much debate. It is now accepted by virtually all Leonardo scholars. The date of the portrait, generally given as c. 1474, and its commission, however, are still discussed. The sitter, born into a wealthy Florentine family, was married to Luigi Niccolini in 1474 at the age of sixteen. It was a customary practice to have a likeness painted on just such an occasion. Recently, however, the humanist Bernardo Bembo has been identified as a possible patron. He was the Venetian Ambassador to Florence from 1474-76 and again in 1478-80, dates that have been suggested for the portrait. Bembo and Ginevra, both married to others, were known to have had a platonic affair, an accepted convention at the time.

The heraldic motif on the painted porphyry reverse side of the portrait, with the motto "Beauty adorns Virtue," praises her, and juniper plants symbolize chastity, considered an appropriate choice for a marriage portrait. The juniper bush, ginepro in Italian, is also a pun on her name.

Leonardo has painted a sensitive and finely modeled image of Ginevra. The undulating curls of her hair are set against her pale flesh, the surface of the paint smoothed by the artist's own hands. Leonardo's portrait was cut down at the bottom sometime in the past by as much as one-third. Presumably the lower section would have shown her hands, possibly folded or crossed, resting in her lap.

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This oil on wood painting is one of Da Vinci's very early works, and is usually dated as c. 1474, a time during which Leonardo was still with Andrea Verrocchio, and had been for about eight years. It was long debated as to whether Leonardo was behind this work; acceptance came with the realisation that during the period of 1470-1480 there were no other painters capable of such an impressive painting.

The lady is normally accepted to be Ginevra de' Benci, one of the most gifted intellectuals of her time. Historians generally consider the portrait was commissioned to celebrate the occasion of her marriage on January 15th, 1474 to Luigi Niccolini. She was seventeen; he was twice her age. Marriage portraits were a common practice at the time and most Florentine portraits of women were painted for just this reason.

A number of things support this theory. On the reverse of the portrait is a heraldic motif consisting of a sprig of juniper encircled by a wreath of laurel and palm, along with the motto "Beauty adorns Virtue". The juniper plants are a symbol of chastity, highly appropriate for a marriage portrait, as well as being a pun -- in Italian -- on her name (the Italian name for juniper being ginevra).

As with all of Leonardo's portraits there are disagreements over this one and some researchers feel it may have been commissioned by Bernardo Bembo, the Venetian Ambassador to Florence from 1474--76, and again in 1478--80. Bembo and Ginevra, both married, were known to have had a platonic affair, quite an accepted convention.

Unlike Leonardo's other portraits of women, this lady looks sulky, unforgiving and haughty; this is emphasised by the slightly smaller cast of one eye, making her look withdrawn. Her left eye seems to gaze directly at us while the right looks beyond to some invisible point. Like other Florentine women of the period Ginevra has shaved off her eyebrows (this is also obvious in the Mona Lisa). Maybe her expression indicates she was not entirely happy regarding her forthcoming marriage. In later life she was to go into self-inflicted exile in an attempt to recover from a severe illness; she was also tormented by an ill-fated love affair.

The marble appearance of her complexion -- smoothed with Leonardo's own hand -- is framed by the undulating ringlets of her hair. This then contrasts beautifully with the halo of spikes from the juniper bush. Leonardo veiled the background of this portrait in a thin veil of mist known as sfumato (literal translation: "turned to vapour"); this being created with overlaid oil glazes. Though Leonardo did not create this effect he become well-known for his skillful use of it.

At some point this canvas has had as much as on one-third cut from the bottom (estimates put the amount removed at around nine centimetres). This area would have been large enough to show her hands, folded or crossed, and resting in her lap. Their loss is a great shame as no one painted hands as beautifully as Leonardo.

Luckily for art fans the loss may not be complete. The silverpoint drawing, to be found in the Royal Library at Windsor, could well be a sketch done in preparation for the Ginevra portrait. Mentally placing these fingers on the painting shows us that the fingers of her right hand would have been touching the laces of her bodice. This area of the portrait has been repainted and in normal circumstances an x-ray might well reveal the missing fingers -- if that same area had not been damaged and a new piece added. As a side note, this same hand sketch is thought to have inspired Escher's very famous hand drawing.

Mutilation and repairs aside, this portrait is the best preserved of Leonardo's early works. This was the only privately-owned painting by Leonardo. In 1967 it became the first one of his paintings to join an American museum when the National Gallery in Washington bought it for a record five million dollars.

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