Leonardo da VinciFlorentine, 1452 - 1519Ginevra de' Benci
474/1478oil on panel, with addition at bottom edge: 42.7 x 37 cm (16 13/16 x 14 9/16 in.) original panel only: 38.1 x 37 cm (15 x 14 9/16 in.)
Ginevra de' Benci would have been about sixteen when she posed for this portrait, which was probably commissioned by her family to mark her engagement. Her painter was the aspiring artist Leonardo da Vinci, then twenty-two years old and still working in the Florentine studio of the great sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio. Yet in this early work Leonardo anticipated his enormous contribution to the style known as High Renaissance. The delicate modeling of Ginevra's face makes her seem palpably real. Light bounces off her shiny ringlets and washes over her porcelain complexion. Such lifelike qualities derive from Leonardo's keen observation and his experimentation with oil paint, which he blended in places with his fingers and palms to soften the edges of forms and to create atmospheric effects.
Passionate about nature, Leonardo portrayed Ginevra in a landscape setting. Gone are conventions of earlier Italian portraits—the figure before a window onto the world, or the strict profile painting. Ginevra is a young woman outdoors, a juniper bush directly behind her and, beyond, the misty profile of distant trees and hills. The bottom portion of the panel was cut off at some time in the past, probably due to damage. Originally, we would have seen Ginevra’s hands—a drawing by Leonardo suggests they were lightly cradled at her waist and held a small sprig or flower. Ginevra's doleful expression and her doll-like head—which may derive from Netherlandish art—intensify the impact of this, the only painting by Leonardo in the Western Hemisphere.
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