Ginevra de' Benci by Leonardo da Vinci
By STAN PARCHIN
July 10, 2010
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| Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452-1519). Ginevra de' Benci (ca. 1474-78). Oil on poplar panel. 38.1 x 37 cm. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. |
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| Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452-1519). Emblematic Motif (ca. 1474-78). Oil on poplar panel. 38.1 x 37 cm. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. |
Beginning in the middle of the 15th Century, Florence experienced an unprecedented flowering of female portraiture. Secular paintings, sculpture, drawings and medals were previously reserved for the commemoration of male rulers and their lovers. A precious handful of individual women's images on wood by Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) survived over time. The National Gallery of Art acquired the master's Ginevra de' Benci (ca. 1474-78) from the Prince of Liechtenstein in 1967, the Western Hemisphere's only example of Leonardo's oil on panel painting.
Virtuous Ginevra de' Benci and Her Family
The Benci, a wealthy family of bankers, were prominent members of Renaissance Florentine society. Ginevra was born in August or September 1457. She married Luigi di Bernardo di Lapo Niccolini on January 15, 1474. Leonardo wrote four times about Giovanni d'Amerigo de' Benci, the adolescent bride's brother, and his collection of noteworthy items, including the polymath's own mappamundi (map of the world).
Humanists Cristoforo Landino and Alessandro Brancessi extolled Ginevra's virtues in 10 poems, their structure inspired by the great Italian vernacular author Petrarch (1304-1374). Their verses also revealed the undeniable platonic devotion of Bernardo Bembo, Venice's ambassador to the court of Burgundy (1472) and Florence (1475-76 and 1478-80). Even Lorenzo de' Medici (1449-1492), the Florentine Republic's shrewd leader and enlightened patron of the arts, recognized the captivating beauty in two sonnets. Ironically, the childless Ginevra's husband described her as sickly six years into their marriage.
Leonardo's Ingenious Portrait
In Leonardo’s portrait, the pale and somber Ginevra de' Benci is seated in three-quarter profile. Her cascading locks of golden hair clearly anticipate the genius’ later studies of water's swirling motion.
The artist’s inventive image is a tour de force of disguised symbolism, wherein the meaning of certain objects in a painting, readily understood by the educated Renaissance viewer, is obscure to the modern eye. Ginevra is depicted against a bluish watery landscape dominated by a flourishing ginepro or juniper bush, Leonardo's intentional play on her name. The prickly plant's profuse green leaves signify chastity.
Emblematic Motif
Behind the portrait is an Emblematic Motif. Elements of its sophisticated design compliment the sitter with references to her personality and character. A wreath of laurel and palm, Bembo's personal insignia representing moral and intellectual fortitude, is set against a simulated red porphyry background. It encircles a sprig of juniper. Entwined around the device is a banner inscribed with the Latin phrase VIRTUTEM FOR/MA DECORAT ("She adorns her virtue with beauty"). The question of whether or not the dedicatory words are a tribute to Ginevra by her husband or the admiring diplomat remains unresolved, thus complicating issues regarding who commissioned the painting and its exact date of execution.
Leonardo's Emblematic Motif may not have been the artist's original intention for the panel's posterior design. The framing lines of his drawing Lady with a Unicorn (ca. 1474) correspond coincidentally to the painting's dimensions. Along with its date, the work on paper's allegorical theme of virtue and chastity is entirely consistent with the iconography of Ginevra's portrait.
Original Appearance
The condition of the painting's recto (front) and verso (reverse) sides confirms that Ginevra de' Benci was truncated at its bottom. The portrait is known to have suffered damage before 1780. About one-third of the composition was subsequently removed. As a result, art historians continue to speculate about the cut-down picture's original appearance. Key to its hypothetical reconstruction are the marble sculpture Lady with a Bunch of Flowers (ca. 1474) by Andrea del Verrocchio (ca. 1435-1488), Leonardo's teacher, and the master's Study of Hands (ca. 1474/90), a metalpoint drawing. Scholars use both works to reconstitute imaginatively the painting's lower missing section, although the latter may be a preparatory sketch for Leonardo's A Lady with an Ermine (ca. 1490), his oil on panel likeness of Cecilia Gallerani, the alluring mistress of Milanese despot Ludovico Sforza (1451-1508).
Sources
Beck, James. Italian Renaissance Painting. Köln: Könemann, 1999, 316-321, 326-328.
Brown, David Alan. Leonardo da Vinci: Origins of a Genius. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1998, 101-122.
_____ (ed.), et al. Virtue and Beauty: Leonardo's "Ginevra de' Benci" and Renaissance Portraits of Women (exh. cat.). Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2001, 11-23, 62-87, 142-153, 162-165.
Clayton, Martin. Leonardo da Vinci: The Divine and the Grotesque (exh. cat.). London: The Royal Collection, 106-108.
Fletcher, Jennifer. "Bernardo Bembo and Leonardo's Portrait of Ginevra de' Benci." The Burlington Magazine 131 (1989), 811-816.
Levenson, Jay A. (ed.), et al. Circa 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration (exh. cat.). Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1991, 270-271.