Prompt: Focus on A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte and explain the Background.

Georges Seurat painted A Sunday Afternoon between May 1884 and March 1885, and from October 1885 to May 1886, focusing meticulously on the landscape of the park and concentrating on issues of colour, light, and form. The painting is approximately 2 by 3 metres (6.6 ft × 9.8 ft) in size. Seurat completed numerous preliminary drawings and oil sketches before completing his masterpiece. One complete painting, the study featured to the right, measures 27 3/4 x 41 in. (70.5 x 104.1 cm) and is on display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.Inspired by optical effects and perception inherent in the color theories of Michel Eugène Chevreul, Ogden Rood and others, Seurat adapted this scientific research to his painting. Seurat contrasted miniature dots or small brushstrokes of colors that when unified optically in the human eye were perceived as a single shade or hue. He believed that this form of painting, called Divisionism at the time (a term he preferred) but now known as Pointillism, would make the colors more brilliant and powerful than standard brushstrokes. The use of dots of almost uniform size came in the second year of his work on the painting, 1885–86. To make the experience of the painting even more vivid, at the paintings edge, he surrounded it with a frame of painted dots, which in turn he enclosed with a pure white, wooden frame, which is how the painting is exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago.The Island of la Grande Jatte is located at the very gates of Paris, lying in the Seine between Neuilly and Levallois-Perret, a short distance from where La Défense business district currently stands. Although for many years it was an industrial site, it has become the site of a public garden and a housing development. When Seurat began the painting in 1884, the island was a bucolic retreat far from the urban center.The painting was first exhibited at the eighth (and last) Impressionist exhibition in May 1886, then in August 1886, dominating the second Salon of the Société des Artistes Indépendants, of which Seurat had been a founder in 1884. Seurat was extremely disciplined, always serious, and private to the point of secretiveness—for the most part, steering his own steady course. As a painter, he wanted to make a difference in the history of art. With La Grande Jatte, Seurat was immediately acknowledged as the leader of a new and rebellious form of Impressionism called Neo-Impressionism.

On display at the Art Institute of Chicago in the white frame as Seurat intended

Category:Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago

File:Northwest portion of La Grande Jatte.jpg

Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection

Georges Seurat, ''Study for "A Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte"'', 1884, oil on canvas, 70.5 x 104.1 cm, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art

The left bank of working class ''[[Bathers at Asnières


Prompt: Explain the Background of this artwork, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.

Georges Seurat painted A Sunday Afternoon between May 1884 and March 1885, and from October 1885 to May 1886, focusing meticulously on the landscape of the park and concentrating on issues of colour, light, and form. The painting is approximately 2 by 3 metres (6.6 ft × 9.8 ft) in size. Seurat completed numerous preliminary drawings and oil sketches before completing his masterpiece. One complete painting, the study featured to the right, measures 27 3/4 x 41 in. (70.5 x 104.1 cm) and is on display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.Inspired by optical effects and perception inherent in the color theories of Michel Eugène Chevreul, Ogden Rood and others, Seurat adapted this scientific research to his painting. Seurat contrasted miniature dots or small brushstrokes of colors that when unified optically in the human eye were perceived as a single shade or hue. He believed that this form of painting, called Divisionism at the time (a term he preferred) but now known as Pointillism, would make the colors more brilliant and powerful than standard brushstrokes. The use of dots of almost uniform size came in the second year of his work on the painting, 1885–86. To make the experience of the painting even more vivid, at the paintings edge, he surrounded it with a frame of painted dots, which in turn he enclosed with a pure white, wooden frame, which is how the painting is exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago.The Island of la Grande Jatte is located at the very gates of Paris, lying in the Seine between Neuilly and Levallois-Perret, a short distance from where La Défense business district currently stands. Although for many years it was an industrial site, it has become the site of a public garden and a housing development. When Seurat began the painting in 1884, the island was a bucolic retreat far from the urban center.The painting was first exhibited at the eighth (and last) Impressionist exhibition in May 1886, then in August 1886, dominating the second Salon of the Société des Artistes Indépendants, of which Seurat had been a founder in 1884. Seurat was extremely disciplined, always serious, and private to the point of secretiveness—for the most part, steering his own steady course. As a painter, he wanted to make a difference in the history of art. With La Grande Jatte, Seurat was immediately acknowledged as the leader of a new and rebellious form of Impressionism called Neo-Impressionism.

On display at the Art Institute of Chicago in the white frame as Seurat intended

Category:Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago

File:Northwest portion of La Grande Jatte.jpg

Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection

Georges Seurat, ''Study for "A Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte"'', 1884, oil on canvas, 70.5 x 104.1 cm, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art

The left bank of working class ''[[Bathers at Asnières


Prompt: How does A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte explain its Background?

Georges Seurat painted A Sunday Afternoon between May 1884 and March 1885, and from October 1885 to May 1886, focusing meticulously on the landscape of the park and concentrating on issues of colour, light, and form. The painting is approximately 2 by 3 metres (6.6 ft × 9.8 ft) in size. Seurat completed numerous preliminary drawings and oil sketches before completing his masterpiece. One complete painting, the study featured to the right, measures 27 3/4 x 41 in. (70.5 x 104.1 cm) and is on display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.Inspired by optical effects and perception inherent in the color theories of Michel Eugène Chevreul, Ogden Rood and others, Seurat adapted this scientific research to his painting. Seurat contrasted miniature dots or small brushstrokes of colors that when unified optically in the human eye were perceived as a single shade or hue. He believed that this form of painting, called Divisionism at the time (a term he preferred) but now known as Pointillism, would make the colors more brilliant and powerful than standard brushstrokes. The use of dots of almost uniform size came in the second year of his work on the painting, 1885–86. To make the experience of the painting even more vivid, at the paintings edge, he surrounded it with a frame of painted dots, which in turn he enclosed with a pure white, wooden frame, which is how the painting is exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago.The Island of la Grande Jatte is located at the very gates of Paris, lying in the Seine between Neuilly and Levallois-Perret, a short distance from where La Défense business district currently stands. Although for many years it was an industrial site, it has become the site of a public garden and a housing development. When Seurat began the painting in 1884, the island was a bucolic retreat far from the urban center.The painting was first exhibited at the eighth (and last) Impressionist exhibition in May 1886, then in August 1886, dominating the second Salon of the Société des Artistes Indépendants, of which Seurat had been a founder in 1884. Seurat was extremely disciplined, always serious, and private to the point of secretiveness—for the most part, steering his own steady course. As a painter, he wanted to make a difference in the history of art. With La Grande Jatte, Seurat was immediately acknowledged as the leader of a new and rebellious form of Impressionism called Neo-Impressionism.

On display at the Art Institute of Chicago in the white frame as Seurat intended

Category:Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago

File:Northwest portion of La Grande Jatte.jpg

Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection

Georges Seurat, ''Study for "A Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte"'', 1884, oil on canvas, 70.5 x 104.1 cm, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art

The left bank of working class ''[[Bathers at Asnières


Prompt: In A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, how is the Background discussed?

Georges Seurat painted A Sunday Afternoon between May 1884 and March 1885, and from October 1885 to May 1886, focusing meticulously on the landscape of the park and concentrating on issues of colour, light, and form. The painting is approximately 2 by 3 metres (6.6 ft × 9.8 ft) in size. Seurat completed numerous preliminary drawings and oil sketches before completing his masterpiece. One complete painting, the study featured to the right, measures 27 3/4 x 41 in. (70.5 x 104.1 cm) and is on display in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.Inspired by optical effects and perception inherent in the color theories of Michel Eugène Chevreul, Ogden Rood and others, Seurat adapted this scientific research to his painting. Seurat contrasted miniature dots or small brushstrokes of colors that when unified optically in the human eye were perceived as a single shade or hue. He believed that this form of painting, called Divisionism at the time (a term he preferred) but now known as Pointillism, would make the colors more brilliant and powerful than standard brushstrokes. The use of dots of almost uniform size came in the second year of his work on the painting, 1885–86. To make the experience of the painting even more vivid, at the paintings edge, he surrounded it with a frame of painted dots, which in turn he enclosed with a pure white, wooden frame, which is how the painting is exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago.The Island of la Grande Jatte is located at the very gates of Paris, lying in the Seine between Neuilly and Levallois-Perret, a short distance from where La Défense business district currently stands. Although for many years it was an industrial site, it has become the site of a public garden and a housing development. When Seurat began the painting in 1884, the island was a bucolic retreat far from the urban center.The painting was first exhibited at the eighth (and last) Impressionist exhibition in May 1886, then in August 1886, dominating the second Salon of the Société des Artistes Indépendants, of which Seurat had been a founder in 1884. Seurat was extremely disciplined, always serious, and private to the point of secretiveness—for the most part, steering his own steady course. As a painter, he wanted to make a difference in the history of art. With La Grande Jatte, Seurat was immediately acknowledged as the leader of a new and rebellious form of Impressionism called Neo-Impressionism.

On display at the Art Institute of Chicago in the white frame as Seurat intended

Category:Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago

File:Northwest portion of La Grande Jatte.jpg

Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection

Georges Seurat, ''Study for "A Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte"'', 1884, oil on canvas, 70.5 x 104.1 cm, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art

The left bank of working class ''[[Bathers at Asnières


Prompt: Focus on A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte and explain the Interpretation.

Seurat's painting was a mirror impression of his own painting, Bathers at Asnières, completed shortly before, in 1884. Whereas the bathers in that earlier painting are doused in light, almost every figure on La Grande Jatte appears to be cast in shadow, either under trees or an umbrella, or from another person. For Parisians, Sunday was the day to escape the heat of the city and head for the shade of the trees and the cool breezes that came off the river. And at first glance, the viewer sees many different people relaxing in a park by the river. On the right, a fashionable couple, the woman with the sunshade and the man in his top hat, are on a stroll. On the left, another woman who is also well dressed extends her fishing pole over the water. There is a small man with the black hat and thin cane looking at the river, and a white dog with a brown head, a woman knitting, a man playing a trumpet, two soldiers standing at attention as the musician plays, and a woman hunched under an orange umbrella. Seurat also painted a man with a pipe, a woman under a parasol in a boat filled with rowers, and a couple admiring their infant child.Some of the characters are doing curious things. The lady on the right side has a pet monkey on a leash. A lady on the left near the river bank is fishing. The area was known at the time as being a place to procure prostitutes among the bourgeoisie, a likely allusion of the otherwise odd "fishing" rod. In the painting's center stands a little girl dressed in white (who is not in a shadow), who stares directly at the viewer of the painting. This may be interpreted as someone who is silently questioning the audience.In the 1950s, historian and Marxist philosopher Ernst Bloch drew social and political significance from Seurat's La Grande Jatte. The historian's focal point was what he saw as Seurat's mechanical use of the figures and what their static nature said about French society at the time. Afterward, critique of the work often centered on the artist's presumed mathematical and robotic interpretation of the meaning of modernity in Paris.According to historian of Modernism William R. Everdell: Seurat himself told a sympathetic critic, Gustave Kahn, that his model was the Panathenaic procession in the Parthenon frieze. But Seurat didn't want to paint ancient Athenians. He wanted 'to make the moderns file past ... in their essential form.' By 'moderns' he meant nothing very complicated. He wanted ordinary people as his subject, and ordinary life. He was a bit of a democrat—a "Communard", as one of his friends remarked, referring to the left-wing revolutionaries of 1871; and he was fascinated by the way things distinct and different encountered each other: the city and the country, the farm and the factory, the bourgeois and the proletarian meeting at their edges in a sort of harmony of opposites.The border of the painting is, unusually, in inverted color, as if the world around them is also slowly inverting from the way of life they have known. Seen in this context, the boy who bathes on the other side of the river bank at Asnières appears to be calling out to them, as if to say, "We are the future. Come and join us".

On display at the Art Institute of Chicago in the white frame as Seurat intended

Category:Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago

File:Northwest portion of La Grande Jatte.jpg

Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection

Georges Seurat, ''Study for "A Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte"'', 1884, oil on canvas, 70.5 x 104.1 cm, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art

The left bank of working class ''[[Bathers at Asnières


Prompt: Explain the Interpretation of this artwork, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.

Seurat's painting was a mirror impression of his own painting, Bathers at Asnières, completed shortly before, in 1884. Whereas the bathers in that earlier painting are doused in light, almost every figure on La Grande Jatte appears to be cast in shadow, either under trees or an umbrella, or from another person. For Parisians, Sunday was the day to escape the heat of the city and head for the shade of the trees and the cool breezes that came off the river. And at first glance, the viewer sees many different people relaxing in a park by the river. On the right, a fashionable couple, the woman with the sunshade and the man in his top hat, are on a stroll. On the left, another woman who is also well dressed extends her fishing pole over the water. There is a small man with the black hat and thin cane looking at the river, and a white dog with a brown head, a woman knitting, a man playing a trumpet, two soldiers standing at attention as the musician plays, and a woman hunched under an orange umbrella. Seurat also painted a man with a pipe, a woman under a parasol in a boat filled with rowers, and a couple admiring their infant child.Some of the characters are doing curious things. The lady on the right side has a pet monkey on a leash. A lady on the left near the river bank is fishing. The area was known at the time as being a place to procure prostitutes among the bourgeoisie, a likely allusion of the otherwise odd "fishing" rod. In the painting's center stands a little girl dressed in white (who is not in a shadow), who stares directly at the viewer of the painting. This may be interpreted as someone who is silently questioning the audience.In the 1950s, historian and Marxist philosopher Ernst Bloch drew social and political significance from Seurat's La Grande Jatte. The historian's focal point was what he saw as Seurat's mechanical use of the figures and what their static nature said about French society at the time. Afterward, critique of the work often centered on the artist's presumed mathematical and robotic interpretation of the meaning of modernity in Paris.According to historian of Modernism William R. Everdell: Seurat himself told a sympathetic critic, Gustave Kahn, that his model was the Panathenaic procession in the Parthenon frieze. But Seurat didn't want to paint ancient Athenians. He wanted 'to make the moderns file past ... in their essential form.' By 'moderns' he meant nothing very complicated. He wanted ordinary people as his subject, and ordinary life. He was a bit of a democrat—a "Communard", as one of his friends remarked, referring to the left-wing revolutionaries of 1871; and he was fascinated by the way things distinct and different encountered each other: the city and the country, the farm and the factory, the bourgeois and the proletarian meeting at their edges in a sort of harmony of opposites.The border of the painting is, unusually, in inverted color, as if the world around them is also slowly inverting from the way of life they have known. Seen in this context, the boy who bathes on the other side of the river bank at Asnières appears to be calling out to them, as if to say, "We are the future. Come and join us".

On display at the Art Institute of Chicago in the white frame as Seurat intended

Category:Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago

File:Northwest portion of La Grande Jatte.jpg

Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection

Georges Seurat, ''Study for "A Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte"'', 1884, oil on canvas, 70.5 x 104.1 cm, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art

The left bank of working class ''[[Bathers at Asnières


Prompt: How does A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte explain its Interpretation?

Seurat's painting was a mirror impression of his own painting, Bathers at Asnières, completed shortly before, in 1884. Whereas the bathers in that earlier painting are doused in light, almost every figure on La Grande Jatte appears to be cast in shadow, either under trees or an umbrella, or from another person. For Parisians, Sunday was the day to escape the heat of the city and head for the shade of the trees and the cool breezes that came off the river. And at first glance, the viewer sees many different people relaxing in a park by the river. On the right, a fashionable couple, the woman with the sunshade and the man in his top hat, are on a stroll. On the left, another woman who is also well dressed extends her fishing pole over the water. There is a small man with the black hat and thin cane looking at the river, and a white dog with a brown head, a woman knitting, a man playing a trumpet, two soldiers standing at attention as the musician plays, and a woman hunched under an orange umbrella. Seurat also painted a man with a pipe, a woman under a parasol in a boat filled with rowers, and a couple admiring their infant child.Some of the characters are doing curious things. The lady on the right side has a pet monkey on a leash. A lady on the left near the river bank is fishing. The area was known at the time as being a place to procure prostitutes among the bourgeoisie, a likely allusion of the otherwise odd "fishing" rod. In the painting's center stands a little girl dressed in white (who is not in a shadow), who stares directly at the viewer of the painting. This may be interpreted as someone who is silently questioning the audience.In the 1950s, historian and Marxist philosopher Ernst Bloch drew social and political significance from Seurat's La Grande Jatte. The historian's focal point was what he saw as Seurat's mechanical use of the figures and what their static nature said about French society at the time. Afterward, critique of the work often centered on the artist's presumed mathematical and robotic interpretation of the meaning of modernity in Paris.According to historian of Modernism William R. Everdell: Seurat himself told a sympathetic critic, Gustave Kahn, that his model was the Panathenaic procession in the Parthenon frieze. But Seurat didn't want to paint ancient Athenians. He wanted 'to make the moderns file past ... in their essential form.' By 'moderns' he meant nothing very complicated. He wanted ordinary people as his subject, and ordinary life. He was a bit of a democrat—a "Communard", as one of his friends remarked, referring to the left-wing revolutionaries of 1871; and he was fascinated by the way things distinct and different encountered each other: the city and the country, the farm and the factory, the bourgeois and the proletarian meeting at their edges in a sort of harmony of opposites.The border of the painting is, unusually, in inverted color, as if the world around them is also slowly inverting from the way of life they have known. Seen in this context, the boy who bathes on the other side of the river bank at Asnières appears to be calling out to them, as if to say, "We are the future. Come and join us".

On display at the Art Institute of Chicago in the white frame as Seurat intended

Category:Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago

File:Northwest portion of La Grande Jatte.jpg

Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection

Georges Seurat, ''Study for "A Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte"'', 1884, oil on canvas, 70.5 x 104.1 cm, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art

The left bank of working class ''[[Bathers at Asnières


Prompt: In A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, how is the Interpretation discussed?

Seurat's painting was a mirror impression of his own painting, Bathers at Asnières, completed shortly before, in 1884. Whereas the bathers in that earlier painting are doused in light, almost every figure on La Grande Jatte appears to be cast in shadow, either under trees or an umbrella, or from another person. For Parisians, Sunday was the day to escape the heat of the city and head for the shade of the trees and the cool breezes that came off the river. And at first glance, the viewer sees many different people relaxing in a park by the river. On the right, a fashionable couple, the woman with the sunshade and the man in his top hat, are on a stroll. On the left, another woman who is also well dressed extends her fishing pole over the water. There is a small man with the black hat and thin cane looking at the river, and a white dog with a brown head, a woman knitting, a man playing a trumpet, two soldiers standing at attention as the musician plays, and a woman hunched under an orange umbrella. Seurat also painted a man with a pipe, a woman under a parasol in a boat filled with rowers, and a couple admiring their infant child.Some of the characters are doing curious things. The lady on the right side has a pet monkey on a leash. A lady on the left near the river bank is fishing. The area was known at the time as being a place to procure prostitutes among the bourgeoisie, a likely allusion of the otherwise odd "fishing" rod. In the painting's center stands a little girl dressed in white (who is not in a shadow), who stares directly at the viewer of the painting. This may be interpreted as someone who is silently questioning the audience.In the 1950s, historian and Marxist philosopher Ernst Bloch drew social and political significance from Seurat's La Grande Jatte. The historian's focal point was what he saw as Seurat's mechanical use of the figures and what their static nature said about French society at the time. Afterward, critique of the work often centered on the artist's presumed mathematical and robotic interpretation of the meaning of modernity in Paris.According to historian of Modernism William R. Everdell: Seurat himself told a sympathetic critic, Gustave Kahn, that his model was the Panathenaic procession in the Parthenon frieze. But Seurat didn't want to paint ancient Athenians. He wanted 'to make the moderns file past ... in their essential form.' By 'moderns' he meant nothing very complicated. He wanted ordinary people as his subject, and ordinary life. He was a bit of a democrat—a "Communard", as one of his friends remarked, referring to the left-wing revolutionaries of 1871; and he was fascinated by the way things distinct and different encountered each other: the city and the country, the farm and the factory, the bourgeois and the proletarian meeting at their edges in a sort of harmony of opposites.The border of the painting is, unusually, in inverted color, as if the world around them is also slowly inverting from the way of life they have known. Seen in this context, the boy who bathes on the other side of the river bank at Asnières appears to be calling out to them, as if to say, "We are the future. Come and join us".

On display at the Art Institute of Chicago in the white frame as Seurat intended

Category:Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago

File:Northwest portion of La Grande Jatte.jpg

Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection

Georges Seurat, ''Study for "A Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte"'', 1884, oil on canvas, 70.5 x 104.1 cm, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art

The left bank of working class ''[[Bathers at Asnières


Prompt: Focus on A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte and explain the Painting materials.

Seurat painted the La Grande Jatte in three distinct stages. In the first stage, which was started in 1884, he mixed his paints from several individual pigments and was still using dull earth pigments such as ochre or burnt sienna. In the second stage, during 1885 and 1886, Seurat dispensed with the earth pigments and also limited the number of individual pigments in his paints. This change in his palette was due to his application of the advanced color theories of his time. His intention was to paint small dots or strokes of pure color that would then mix on the retina of the beholder to achieve the desired color impression instead of the usual practice of mixing individual pigments.Seurat's palette consisted of the usual pigments of his time such as cobalt blue, emerald green and vermilion. Additionally, he used the then new pigment zinc yellow (zinc chromate), predominantly for yellow highlights in the sunlit grass in the middle of the painting but also in mixtures with orange and blue pigments. In the century and more since the painting's completion, the zinc yellow has darkened to brown—a color degeneration that was already showing in the painting in Seurat's lifetime. The discoloration of the originally bright yellow zinc yellow (zinc chromate) to a brownish color is due to the chemical reaction of the chromate ions to orange-colored dichromate ions. In the third stage during 1888–89 Seurat added the colored borders to his composition.The results of investigation into the discoloration of this painting have been combined with further research into natural aging of paints to digitally rejuvenate the painting.

On display at the Art Institute of Chicago in the white frame as Seurat intended

Category:Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago

File:Northwest portion of La Grande Jatte.jpg

Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection

Georges Seurat, ''Study for "A Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte"'', 1884, oil on canvas, 70.5 x 104.1 cm, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art

The left bank of working class ''[[Bathers at Asnières


Prompt: Explain the Painting materials of this artwork, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.

Seurat painted the La Grande Jatte in three distinct stages. In the first stage, which was started in 1884, he mixed his paints from several individual pigments and was still using dull earth pigments such as ochre or burnt sienna. In the second stage, during 1885 and 1886, Seurat dispensed with the earth pigments and also limited the number of individual pigments in his paints. This change in his palette was due to his application of the advanced color theories of his time. His intention was to paint small dots or strokes of pure color that would then mix on the retina of the beholder to achieve the desired color impression instead of the usual practice of mixing individual pigments.Seurat's palette consisted of the usual pigments of his time such as cobalt blue, emerald green and vermilion. Additionally, he used the then new pigment zinc yellow (zinc chromate), predominantly for yellow highlights in the sunlit grass in the middle of the painting but also in mixtures with orange and blue pigments. In the century and more since the painting's completion, the zinc yellow has darkened to brown—a color degeneration that was already showing in the painting in Seurat's lifetime. The discoloration of the originally bright yellow zinc yellow (zinc chromate) to a brownish color is due to the chemical reaction of the chromate ions to orange-colored dichromate ions. In the third stage during 1888–89 Seurat added the colored borders to his composition.The results of investigation into the discoloration of this painting have been combined with further research into natural aging of paints to digitally rejuvenate the painting.

On display at the Art Institute of Chicago in the white frame as Seurat intended

Category:Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago

File:Northwest portion of La Grande Jatte.jpg

Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection

Georges Seurat, ''Study for "A Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte"'', 1884, oil on canvas, 70.5 x 104.1 cm, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art

The left bank of working class ''[[Bathers at Asnières


Prompt: How does A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte explain its Painting materials?

Seurat painted the La Grande Jatte in three distinct stages. In the first stage, which was started in 1884, he mixed his paints from several individual pigments and was still using dull earth pigments such as ochre or burnt sienna. In the second stage, during 1885 and 1886, Seurat dispensed with the earth pigments and also limited the number of individual pigments in his paints. This change in his palette was due to his application of the advanced color theories of his time. His intention was to paint small dots or strokes of pure color that would then mix on the retina of the beholder to achieve the desired color impression instead of the usual practice of mixing individual pigments.Seurat's palette consisted of the usual pigments of his time such as cobalt blue, emerald green and vermilion. Additionally, he used the then new pigment zinc yellow (zinc chromate), predominantly for yellow highlights in the sunlit grass in the middle of the painting but also in mixtures with orange and blue pigments. In the century and more since the painting's completion, the zinc yellow has darkened to brown—a color degeneration that was already showing in the painting in Seurat's lifetime. The discoloration of the originally bright yellow zinc yellow (zinc chromate) to a brownish color is due to the chemical reaction of the chromate ions to orange-colored dichromate ions. In the third stage during 1888–89 Seurat added the colored borders to his composition.The results of investigation into the discoloration of this painting have been combined with further research into natural aging of paints to digitally rejuvenate the painting.

On display at the Art Institute of Chicago in the white frame as Seurat intended

Category:Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago

File:Northwest portion of La Grande Jatte.jpg

Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection

Georges Seurat, ''Study for "A Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte"'', 1884, oil on canvas, 70.5 x 104.1 cm, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art

The left bank of working class ''[[Bathers at Asnières


Prompt: In A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, how is the Painting materials discussed?

Seurat painted the La Grande Jatte in three distinct stages. In the first stage, which was started in 1884, he mixed his paints from several individual pigments and was still using dull earth pigments such as ochre or burnt sienna. In the second stage, during 1885 and 1886, Seurat dispensed with the earth pigments and also limited the number of individual pigments in his paints. This change in his palette was due to his application of the advanced color theories of his time. His intention was to paint small dots or strokes of pure color that would then mix on the retina of the beholder to achieve the desired color impression instead of the usual practice of mixing individual pigments.Seurat's palette consisted of the usual pigments of his time such as cobalt blue, emerald green and vermilion. Additionally, he used the then new pigment zinc yellow (zinc chromate), predominantly for yellow highlights in the sunlit grass in the middle of the painting but also in mixtures with orange and blue pigments. In the century and more since the painting's completion, the zinc yellow has darkened to brown—a color degeneration that was already showing in the painting in Seurat's lifetime. The discoloration of the originally bright yellow zinc yellow (zinc chromate) to a brownish color is due to the chemical reaction of the chromate ions to orange-colored dichromate ions. In the third stage during 1888–89 Seurat added the colored borders to his composition.The results of investigation into the discoloration of this painting have been combined with further research into natural aging of paints to digitally rejuvenate the painting.

On display at the Art Institute of Chicago in the white frame as Seurat intended

Category:Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago

File:Northwest portion of La Grande Jatte.jpg

Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection

Georges Seurat, ''Study for "A Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte"'', 1884, oil on canvas, 70.5 x 104.1 cm, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art

The left bank of working class ''[[Bathers at Asnières


Prompt: Focus on A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte and explain the Acquisition by the Art Institute of Chicago.

In 1923, Frederic Bartlett was appointed trustee of the Art Institute of Chicago. He and his second wife, Helen Birch Bartlett, loaned their collection of French Post-Impressionist and Modernist art to the museum. It was Mrs. Bartlett who had an interest in French and avant-garde artists and influenced her husband's collecting tastes. Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte was purchased on the advice of the Art Institute of Chicago's curatorial staff in 1924.In conceptual artist Don Celender's 1974–75 book Observation and Scholarship Examination for Art Historians, Museum Directors, Artists, Dealers and Collectors, it is claimed that the institute paid $24,000 for the work (over $354,000 in 2018 dollars).In 1958, the painting was loaned for the only time, to the Museum of Modern Art in New York. On 15 April 1958, a fire there, which killed one person on the second floor of the museum, forced the evacuation of the painting, which had been on a floor above the fire, to the Whitney Museum, which adjoined MoMA at the time.

On display at the Art Institute of Chicago in the white frame as Seurat intended

Category:Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago

File:Northwest portion of La Grande Jatte.jpg

Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection

Georges Seurat, ''Study for "A Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte"'', 1884, oil on canvas, 70.5 x 104.1 cm, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art

The left bank of working class ''[[Bathers at Asnières


Prompt: Explain the Acquisition by the Art Institute of Chicago of this artwork, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.

In 1923, Frederic Bartlett was appointed trustee of the Art Institute of Chicago. He and his second wife, Helen Birch Bartlett, loaned their collection of French Post-Impressionist and Modernist art to the museum. It was Mrs. Bartlett who had an interest in French and avant-garde artists and influenced her husband's collecting tastes. Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte was purchased on the advice of the Art Institute of Chicago's curatorial staff in 1924.In conceptual artist Don Celender's 1974–75 book Observation and Scholarship Examination for Art Historians, Museum Directors, Artists, Dealers and Collectors, it is claimed that the institute paid $24,000 for the work (over $354,000 in 2018 dollars).In 1958, the painting was loaned for the only time, to the Museum of Modern Art in New York. On 15 April 1958, a fire there, which killed one person on the second floor of the museum, forced the evacuation of the painting, which had been on a floor above the fire, to the Whitney Museum, which adjoined MoMA at the time.

On display at the Art Institute of Chicago in the white frame as Seurat intended

Category:Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago

File:Northwest portion of La Grande Jatte.jpg

Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection

Georges Seurat, ''Study for "A Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte"'', 1884, oil on canvas, 70.5 x 104.1 cm, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art

The left bank of working class ''[[Bathers at Asnières


Prompt: How does A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte explain its Acquisition by the Art Institute of Chicago?

In 1923, Frederic Bartlett was appointed trustee of the Art Institute of Chicago. He and his second wife, Helen Birch Bartlett, loaned their collection of French Post-Impressionist and Modernist art to the museum. It was Mrs. Bartlett who had an interest in French and avant-garde artists and influenced her husband's collecting tastes. Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte was purchased on the advice of the Art Institute of Chicago's curatorial staff in 1924.In conceptual artist Don Celender's 1974–75 book Observation and Scholarship Examination for Art Historians, Museum Directors, Artists, Dealers and Collectors, it is claimed that the institute paid $24,000 for the work (over $354,000 in 2018 dollars).In 1958, the painting was loaned for the only time, to the Museum of Modern Art in New York. On 15 April 1958, a fire there, which killed one person on the second floor of the museum, forced the evacuation of the painting, which had been on a floor above the fire, to the Whitney Museum, which adjoined MoMA at the time.

On display at the Art Institute of Chicago in the white frame as Seurat intended

Category:Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago

File:Northwest portion of La Grande Jatte.jpg

Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection

Georges Seurat, ''Study for "A Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte"'', 1884, oil on canvas, 70.5 x 104.1 cm, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art

The left bank of working class ''[[Bathers at Asnières


Prompt: In A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, how is the Acquisition by the Art Institute of Chicago discussed?

In 1923, Frederic Bartlett was appointed trustee of the Art Institute of Chicago. He and his second wife, Helen Birch Bartlett, loaned their collection of French Post-Impressionist and Modernist art to the museum. It was Mrs. Bartlett who had an interest in French and avant-garde artists and influenced her husband's collecting tastes. Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte was purchased on the advice of the Art Institute of Chicago's curatorial staff in 1924.In conceptual artist Don Celender's 1974–75 book Observation and Scholarship Examination for Art Historians, Museum Directors, Artists, Dealers and Collectors, it is claimed that the institute paid $24,000 for the work (over $354,000 in 2018 dollars).In 1958, the painting was loaned for the only time, to the Museum of Modern Art in New York. On 15 April 1958, a fire there, which killed one person on the second floor of the museum, forced the evacuation of the painting, which had been on a floor above the fire, to the Whitney Museum, which adjoined MoMA at the time.

On display at the Art Institute of Chicago in the white frame as Seurat intended

Category:Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago

File:Northwest portion of La Grande Jatte.jpg

Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection

Georges Seurat, ''Study for "A Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte"'', 1884, oil on canvas, 70.5 x 104.1 cm, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art

The left bank of working class ''[[Bathers at Asnières


Prompt: Focus on A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte and explain the In popular culture.

The painting is the basis for the 1984 Broadway musical Sunday in the Park with George by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, which tells a fictionalized story of the painting's creation. Subsequently, the painting is sometimes referred to by the misnomer "Sunday in the Park".In Topiary Park (formerly Old Deaf School Park) in Columbus, Ohio, sculptor James T. Mason re-created the painting in topiary form; the installation was completed in 1989.The 1986 John Hughes film Ferris Bueller's Day Off featured the painting during a scene at the Art Institute of Chicago.

On display at the Art Institute of Chicago in the white frame as Seurat intended

Category:Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago

File:Northwest portion of La Grande Jatte.jpg

Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection

Georges Seurat, ''Study for "A Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte"'', 1884, oil on canvas, 70.5 x 104.1 cm, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art

The left bank of working class ''[[Bathers at Asnières


Prompt: Explain the In popular culture of this artwork, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.

The painting is the basis for the 1984 Broadway musical Sunday in the Park with George by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, which tells a fictionalized story of the painting's creation. Subsequently, the painting is sometimes referred to by the misnomer "Sunday in the Park".In Topiary Park (formerly Old Deaf School Park) in Columbus, Ohio, sculptor James T. Mason re-created the painting in topiary form; the installation was completed in 1989.The 1986 John Hughes film Ferris Bueller's Day Off featured the painting during a scene at the Art Institute of Chicago.

On display at the Art Institute of Chicago in the white frame as Seurat intended

Category:Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago

File:Northwest portion of La Grande Jatte.jpg

Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection

Georges Seurat, ''Study for "A Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte"'', 1884, oil on canvas, 70.5 x 104.1 cm, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art

The left bank of working class ''[[Bathers at Asnières


Prompt: How does A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte explain its In popular culture?

The painting is the basis for the 1984 Broadway musical Sunday in the Park with George by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, which tells a fictionalized story of the painting's creation. Subsequently, the painting is sometimes referred to by the misnomer "Sunday in the Park".In Topiary Park (formerly Old Deaf School Park) in Columbus, Ohio, sculptor James T. Mason re-created the painting in topiary form; the installation was completed in 1989.The 1986 John Hughes film Ferris Bueller's Day Off featured the painting during a scene at the Art Institute of Chicago.

On display at the Art Institute of Chicago in the white frame as Seurat intended

Category:Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago

File:Northwest portion of La Grande Jatte.jpg

Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection

Georges Seurat, ''Study for "A Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte"'', 1884, oil on canvas, 70.5 x 104.1 cm, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art

The left bank of working class ''[[Bathers at Asnières


Prompt: In A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, how is the In popular culture discussed?

The painting is the basis for the 1984 Broadway musical Sunday in the Park with George by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, which tells a fictionalized story of the painting's creation. Subsequently, the painting is sometimes referred to by the misnomer "Sunday in the Park".In Topiary Park (formerly Old Deaf School Park) in Columbus, Ohio, sculptor James T. Mason re-created the painting in topiary form; the installation was completed in 1989.The 1986 John Hughes film Ferris Bueller's Day Off featured the painting during a scene at the Art Institute of Chicago.

On display at the Art Institute of Chicago in the white frame as Seurat intended

Category:Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago

File:Northwest portion of La Grande Jatte.jpg

Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection

Georges Seurat, ''Study for "A Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte"'', 1884, oil on canvas, 70.5 x 104.1 cm, [[Metropolitan Museum of Art

The left bank of working class ''[[Bathers at Asnières


Lady with an Ermine

Prompt: Focus on Lady with an Ermine and explain the abstract.

The Lady with an Ermine is a portrait painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci. Dated to c. 1489–1491, the work is painted in oils on a panel of walnut wood. Its subject is  Cecilia Gallerani, a mistress of Ludovico Sforza ("Il Moro"), Duke of Milan; Leonardo was painter to the Sforza court in Milan at the time of its execution. It is the second of only four surviving portraits of women painted by Leonardo, the others being Ginevra de' Benci, La Belle Ferronnière and the Mona Lisa.Lady with an Ermine is now housed at the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków, and is one of Poland's national treasures. It is part of the Princes Czartoryski Collection, which was sold for €100 million (5% of the estimated market value of the entire collection) on 29 December 2016 to the Polish government by Princes Czartoryski Foundation, represented by Adam Karol Czartoryski, the last direct descendant of Izabela Czartoryska Flemming and Adam George Czartoryski, who brought the painting to Poland from Italy in 1798.

Category:Art and cultural repatriation after World War II

''The Ermine Hunt'' (c. 1490), a pen and ink drawing by Leonardo da Vinci

Category:Looting of Poland in World War II

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance

Category:Collection of the Czartoryski Museum

Leonardo da Vinci#First Milanese period (c. 1482–1499)

"Monuments Men" – Frank P. Albright, Everett Parker Lesley, Joe D. Espinosa – and Polish liaison officer [[Karol Estreicher (junior)


Lady with an Ermine

Prompt: Explain the abstract of this artwork, Lady with an Ermine.

The Lady with an Ermine is a portrait painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci. Dated to c. 1489–1491, the work is painted in oils on a panel of walnut wood. Its subject is  Cecilia Gallerani, a mistress of Ludovico Sforza ("Il Moro"), Duke of Milan; Leonardo was painter to the Sforza court in Milan at the time of its execution. It is the second of only four surviving portraits of women painted by Leonardo, the others being Ginevra de' Benci, La Belle Ferronnière and the Mona Lisa.Lady with an Ermine is now housed at the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków, and is one of Poland's national treasures. It is part of the Princes Czartoryski Collection, which was sold for €100 million (5% of the estimated market value of the entire collection) on 29 December 2016 to the Polish government by Princes Czartoryski Foundation, represented by Adam Karol Czartoryski, the last direct descendant of Izabela Czartoryska Flemming and Adam George Czartoryski, who brought the painting to Poland from Italy in 1798.

Category:Art and cultural repatriation after World War II

''The Ermine Hunt'' (c. 1490), a pen and ink drawing by Leonardo da Vinci

Category:Looting of Poland in World War II

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance

Category:Collection of the Czartoryski Museum

Leonardo da Vinci#First Milanese period (c. 1482–1499)

"Monuments Men" – Frank P. Albright, Everett Parker Lesley, Joe D. Espinosa – and Polish liaison officer [[Karol Estreicher (junior)


Lady with an Ermine

Prompt: How does Lady with an Ermine explain its abstract?

The Lady with an Ermine is a portrait painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci. Dated to c. 1489–1491, the work is painted in oils on a panel of walnut wood. Its subject is  Cecilia Gallerani, a mistress of Ludovico Sforza ("Il Moro"), Duke of Milan; Leonardo was painter to the Sforza court in Milan at the time of its execution. It is the second of only four surviving portraits of women painted by Leonardo, the others being Ginevra de' Benci, La Belle Ferronnière and the Mona Lisa.Lady with an Ermine is now housed at the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków, and is one of Poland's national treasures. It is part of the Princes Czartoryski Collection, which was sold for €100 million (5% of the estimated market value of the entire collection) on 29 December 2016 to the Polish government by Princes Czartoryski Foundation, represented by Adam Karol Czartoryski, the last direct descendant of Izabela Czartoryska Flemming and Adam George Czartoryski, who brought the painting to Poland from Italy in 1798.

Category:Art and cultural repatriation after World War II

''The Ermine Hunt'' (c. 1490), a pen and ink drawing by Leonardo da Vinci

Category:Looting of Poland in World War II

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance

Category:Collection of the Czartoryski Museum

Leonardo da Vinci#First Milanese period (c. 1482–1499)

"Monuments Men" – Frank P. Albright, Everett Parker Lesley, Joe D. Espinosa – and Polish liaison officer [[Karol Estreicher (junior)


Lady with an Ermine

Prompt: In Lady with an Ermine, how is the abstract discussed?

The Lady with an Ermine is a portrait painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci. Dated to c. 1489–1491, the work is painted in oils on a panel of walnut wood. Its subject is  Cecilia Gallerani, a mistress of Ludovico Sforza ("Il Moro"), Duke of Milan; Leonardo was painter to the Sforza court in Milan at the time of its execution. It is the second of only four surviving portraits of women painted by Leonardo, the others being Ginevra de' Benci, La Belle Ferronnière and the Mona Lisa.Lady with an Ermine is now housed at the Czartoryski Museum in Kraków, and is one of Poland's national treasures. It is part of the Princes Czartoryski Collection, which was sold for €100 million (5% of the estimated market value of the entire collection) on 29 December 2016 to the Polish government by Princes Czartoryski Foundation, represented by Adam Karol Czartoryski, the last direct descendant of Izabela Czartoryska Flemming and Adam George Czartoryski, who brought the painting to Poland from Italy in 1798.

Category:Art and cultural repatriation after World War II

''The Ermine Hunt'' (c. 1490), a pen and ink drawing by Leonardo da Vinci

Category:Looting of Poland in World War II

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance

Category:Collection of the Czartoryski Museum

Leonardo da Vinci#First Milanese period (c. 1482–1499)

"Monuments Men" – Frank P. Albright, Everett Parker Lesley, Joe D. Espinosa – and Polish liaison officer [[Karol Estreicher (junior)


Lady with an Ermine

Prompt: In the context of Lady with an Ermine, explain the Composition and the Description.

The painting was executed in oils on a relatively small, 54 cm × 39 cm (21 in × 15 in) walnut wood panel. It depicts a half-height woman turned toward her right at a three-quarter angle, but with her face turned toward her left. The animal in her arms twists in a similar manner, resulting in considerable contrapposto with the lady, a technique Leonardo explored earlier with the angel in the Virgin of the Rocks. The work is prepared with a layer of white gesso and a layer of brownish underpaint. In general, the paint is evenly applied akin to the Mona Lisa, though certain areas of the lady's skin are more layered. Also present are the subtle remains of spolvero (in the outline of the face and head), underdrawing (in the right arm, right hand, left hand, top of nose and edge of the hair), and fingerprints (the face and animal's head), the latter of which are particularly common in Leonardo's paintings. It is made from a single piece of walnut wood; Leonardo recommended, and favored walnut wood, though it was not commonly used by other artists in Lombardy. The wood is thin (about 4–5 millimetres (0.16–0.20 in)) and is most likely from the same tree as the wood for his later portrait, La Belle Ferronnière. The Lady with an Ermine is also connected to La Belle Ferronnière, as well as Leonardo's earlier Portrait of a Musician, due to the three paintings including black backgrounds.Though there are a few areas of minor damage, art historian Frank Zöllner insists the work is in "very good condition... similar to the equally well preserved Mona Lisa". Such an evaluation is relatively recent, however, as the work was previously considered to be considerably damaged and repainted. Promotion of such an analysis largely began with the art historian Kenneth Clark, who asserted in 1961 that the entire left side of the figure, as well as the background had been repainted. Scholars such as Adolfo Venturi, Angela Ottino della Chiesa and Jack Wasserman advanced the idea; however, a 1992 technical analysis at the National Gallery of Art led by David Bull has confirmed that the damage was limited to the background. Specifically, the background was likely originally a bluish-grey, overpainted with black during the mid-18th century. The signature LEONARD D'AWINCI in the top left corner was probably also added at this time. There is also slight overpainting in the mouth and nose; some art historians suggest Eugène Delacroix was responsible for the overpaint in the background and elsewhere. The background was also subject to the misconception that it originally included a window. It was proposed by Kazimierz Kwiatkowski, who led 1955 X-ray testing at Warsaw Laboratories, and explained certain spots in the right background as being remnants of a window. Such a conclusion has been disproven by Bull, Pietro C. Marani and others. In light of this revision—with the primary damage being overpaint in the background—the art historian Martin Kemp noted that "the picture is in much better condition than the standard accounts suggest, and gives the clearest indication of the freshly brilliant quality of Leonardo's painting during his period at the Sforza court in Milan".

Category:Art and cultural repatriation after World War II

''The Ermine Hunt'' (c. 1490), a pen and ink drawing by Leonardo da Vinci

Category:Looting of Poland in World War II

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance

Category:Collection of the Czartoryski Museum

Leonardo da Vinci#First Milanese period (c. 1482–1499)

"Monuments Men" – Frank P. Albright, Everett Parker Lesley, Joe D. Espinosa – and Polish liaison officer [[Karol Estreicher (junior)


Lady with an Ermine

Prompt: Explain the Composition about the Description of this artwork, Lady with an Ermine.

The painting was executed in oils on a relatively small, 54 cm × 39 cm (21 in × 15 in) walnut wood panel. It depicts a half-height woman turned toward her right at a three-quarter angle, but with her face turned toward her left. The animal in her arms twists in a similar manner, resulting in considerable contrapposto with the lady, a technique Leonardo explored earlier with the angel in the Virgin of the Rocks. The work is prepared with a layer of white gesso and a layer of brownish underpaint. In general, the paint is evenly applied akin to the Mona Lisa, though certain areas of the lady's skin are more layered. Also present are the subtle remains of spolvero (in the outline of the face and head), underdrawing (in the right arm, right hand, left hand, top of nose and edge of the hair), and fingerprints (the face and animal's head), the latter of which are particularly common in Leonardo's paintings. It is made from a single piece of walnut wood; Leonardo recommended, and favored walnut wood, though it was not commonly used by other artists in Lombardy. The wood is thin (about 4–5 millimetres (0.16–0.20 in)) and is most likely from the same tree as the wood for his later portrait, La Belle Ferronnière. The Lady with an Ermine is also connected to La Belle Ferronnière, as well as Leonardo's earlier Portrait of a Musician, due to the three paintings including black backgrounds.Though there are a few areas of minor damage, art historian Frank Zöllner insists the work is in "very good condition... similar to the equally well preserved Mona Lisa". Such an evaluation is relatively recent, however, as the work was previously considered to be considerably damaged and repainted. Promotion of such an analysis largely began with the art historian Kenneth Clark, who asserted in 1961 that the entire left side of the figure, as well as the background had been repainted. Scholars such as Adolfo Venturi, Angela Ottino della Chiesa and Jack Wasserman advanced the idea; however, a 1992 technical analysis at the National Gallery of Art led by David Bull has confirmed that the damage was limited to the background. Specifically, the background was likely originally a bluish-grey, overpainted with black during the mid-18th century. The signature LEONARD D'AWINCI in the top left corner was probably also added at this time. There is also slight overpainting in the mouth and nose; some art historians suggest Eugène Delacroix was responsible for the overpaint in the background and elsewhere. The background was also subject to the misconception that it originally included a window. It was proposed by Kazimierz Kwiatkowski, who led 1955 X-ray testing at Warsaw Laboratories, and explained certain spots in the right background as being remnants of a window. Such a conclusion has been disproven by Bull, Pietro C. Marani and others. In light of this revision—with the primary damage being overpaint in the background—the art historian Martin Kemp noted that "the picture is in much better condition than the standard accounts suggest, and gives the clearest indication of the freshly brilliant quality of Leonardo's painting during his period at the Sforza court in Milan".

Category:Art and cultural repatriation after World War II

''The Ermine Hunt'' (c. 1490), a pen and ink drawing by Leonardo da Vinci

Category:Looting of Poland in World War II

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance

Category:Collection of the Czartoryski Museum

Leonardo da Vinci#First Milanese period (c. 1482–1499)

"Monuments Men" – Frank P. Albright, Everett Parker Lesley, Joe D. Espinosa – and Polish liaison officer [[Karol Estreicher (junior)


Lady with an Ermine

Prompt: In Lady with an Ermine, how is the Composition of the Description explained?

The painting was executed in oils on a relatively small, 54 cm × 39 cm (21 in × 15 in) walnut wood panel. It depicts a half-height woman turned toward her right at a three-quarter angle, but with her face turned toward her left. The animal in her arms twists in a similar manner, resulting in considerable contrapposto with the lady, a technique Leonardo explored earlier with the angel in the Virgin of the Rocks. The work is prepared with a layer of white gesso and a layer of brownish underpaint. In general, the paint is evenly applied akin to the Mona Lisa, though certain areas of the lady's skin are more layered. Also present are the subtle remains of spolvero (in the outline of the face and head), underdrawing (in the right arm, right hand, left hand, top of nose and edge of the hair), and fingerprints (the face and animal's head), the latter of which are particularly common in Leonardo's paintings. It is made from a single piece of walnut wood; Leonardo recommended, and favored walnut wood, though it was not commonly used by other artists in Lombardy. The wood is thin (about 4–5 millimetres (0.16–0.20 in)) and is most likely from the same tree as the wood for his later portrait, La Belle Ferronnière. The Lady with an Ermine is also connected to La Belle Ferronnière, as well as Leonardo's earlier Portrait of a Musician, due to the three paintings including black backgrounds.Though there are a few areas of minor damage, art historian Frank Zöllner insists the work is in "very good condition... similar to the equally well preserved Mona Lisa". Such an evaluation is relatively recent, however, as the work was previously considered to be considerably damaged and repainted. Promotion of such an analysis largely began with the art historian Kenneth Clark, who asserted in 1961 that the entire left side of the figure, as well as the background had been repainted. Scholars such as Adolfo Venturi, Angela Ottino della Chiesa and Jack Wasserman advanced the idea; however, a 1992 technical analysis at the National Gallery of Art led by David Bull has confirmed that the damage was limited to the background. Specifically, the background was likely originally a bluish-grey, overpainted with black during the mid-18th century. The signature LEONARD D'AWINCI in the top left corner was probably also added at this time. There is also slight overpainting in the mouth and nose; some art historians suggest Eugène Delacroix was responsible for the overpaint in the background and elsewhere. The background was also subject to the misconception that it originally included a window. It was proposed by Kazimierz Kwiatkowski, who led 1955 X-ray testing at Warsaw Laboratories, and explained certain spots in the right background as being remnants of a window. Such a conclusion has been disproven by Bull, Pietro C. Marani and others. In light of this revision—with the primary damage being overpaint in the background—the art historian Martin Kemp noted that "the picture is in much better condition than the standard accounts suggest, and gives the clearest indication of the freshly brilliant quality of Leonardo's painting during his period at the Sforza court in Milan".

Category:Art and cultural repatriation after World War II

''The Ermine Hunt'' (c. 1490), a pen and ink drawing by Leonardo da Vinci

Category:Looting of Poland in World War II

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance

Category:Collection of the Czartoryski Museum

Leonardo da Vinci#First Milanese period (c. 1482–1499)

"Monuments Men" – Frank P. Albright, Everett Parker Lesley, Joe D. Espinosa – and Polish liaison officer [[Karol Estreicher (junior)


Lady with an Ermine

Prompt: Describe the characteristics of the Composition in Lady with an Ermine's Description.

The painting was executed in oils on a relatively small, 54 cm × 39 cm (21 in × 15 in) walnut wood panel. It depicts a half-height woman turned toward her right at a three-quarter angle, but with her face turned toward her left. The animal in her arms twists in a similar manner, resulting in considerable contrapposto with the lady, a technique Leonardo explored earlier with the angel in the Virgin of the Rocks. The work is prepared with a layer of white gesso and a layer of brownish underpaint. In general, the paint is evenly applied akin to the Mona Lisa, though certain areas of the lady's skin are more layered. Also present are the subtle remains of spolvero (in the outline of the face and head), underdrawing (in the right arm, right hand, left hand, top of nose and edge of the hair), and fingerprints (the face and animal's head), the latter of which are particularly common in Leonardo's paintings. It is made from a single piece of walnut wood; Leonardo recommended, and favored walnut wood, though it was not commonly used by other artists in Lombardy. The wood is thin (about 4–5 millimetres (0.16–0.20 in)) and is most likely from the same tree as the wood for his later portrait, La Belle Ferronnière. The Lady with an Ermine is also connected to La Belle Ferronnière, as well as Leonardo's earlier Portrait of a Musician, due to the three paintings including black backgrounds.Though there are a few areas of minor damage, art historian Frank Zöllner insists the work is in "very good condition... similar to the equally well preserved Mona Lisa". Such an evaluation is relatively recent, however, as the work was previously considered to be considerably damaged and repainted. Promotion of such an analysis largely began with the art historian Kenneth Clark, who asserted in 1961 that the entire left side of the figure, as well as the background had been repainted. Scholars such as Adolfo Venturi, Angela Ottino della Chiesa and Jack Wasserman advanced the idea; however, a 1992 technical analysis at the National Gallery of Art led by David Bull has confirmed that the damage was limited to the background. Specifically, the background was likely originally a bluish-grey, overpainted with black during the mid-18th century. The signature LEONARD D'AWINCI in the top left corner was probably also added at this time. There is also slight overpainting in the mouth and nose; some art historians suggest Eugène Delacroix was responsible for the overpaint in the background and elsewhere. The background was also subject to the misconception that it originally included a window. It was proposed by Kazimierz Kwiatkowski, who led 1955 X-ray testing at Warsaw Laboratories, and explained certain spots in the right background as being remnants of a window. Such a conclusion has been disproven by Bull, Pietro C. Marani and others. In light of this revision—with the primary damage being overpaint in the background—the art historian Martin Kemp noted that "the picture is in much better condition than the standard accounts suggest, and gives the clearest indication of the freshly brilliant quality of Leonardo's painting during his period at the Sforza court in Milan".

Category:Art and cultural repatriation after World War II

''The Ermine Hunt'' (c. 1490), a pen and ink drawing by Leonardo da Vinci

Category:Looting of Poland in World War II

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance

Category:Collection of the Czartoryski Museum

Leonardo da Vinci#First Milanese period (c. 1482–1499)

"Monuments Men" – Frank P. Albright, Everett Parker Lesley, Joe D. Espinosa – and Polish liaison officer [[Karol Estreicher (junior)


Lady with an Ermine

Prompt: In the context of Lady with an Ermine, explain the The Lady and the Description.

The subject has been identified with reasonable certainty as Cecilia Gallerani, the mistress of Leonardo's Milanese employer, Ludovico Sforza. She looks to her left at something out of frame, toward the light, where the biographer Walter Isaacson suggests Ludovico is. Following the marriage of Isabella of Aragon, Duchess of Milan and Gian Galeazzo Sforza, her 'Spanish style' dress would have been particularly fashionable. She has a silk sbernia on over her left shoulder, though Leonardo has simplified the traditional manner of wearing—where it would be draped over both shoulders—potentially to avoid too much complication in the various elements of the painting. Her right shoulder shows an ornately embroidered gold band over a velvet dress. Again, Leonardo has simplified the design, by having the left shoulder band covered by the sbernia, so as to not take away from the animal's detailed head. Her coiffure, known as a coazzone, confines her hair smoothly to her head with two bands of it bound on either side of her face and a long plait at the back. Her hair is held in place by a fine gauze veil with a woven border of gold-wound threads, a black band, and a sheath over the plait.As in many of Leonardo's paintings, the composition comprises a pyramidic spiral and the sitter is caught in the motion of turning to her left, reflecting Leonardo's lifelong preoccupation with the dynamics of movement. The three-quarter profile portrait was one of his many innovations. Il Moro's court poet, Bernardo Bellincioni, was the first to propose that Cecilia was poised as if listening to an unseen speaker. This work in particular shows Leonardo's expertise in painting the human form. The artist painted Cecilia's outstretched hand with a lot of detail, including the shape of each fingernail, the lines around her knuckles, and even the way the tendon in her bent finger moved as it bentA recent study brings to the forefront and supports another so far little-followed hypothesis: the heroic character of Caterina Sforza, the lioness of Romagna, is proposed as being the model of this allegorical representation in which the mental strength and beauty that were attributed to Amazons in mythology.

Category:Art and cultural repatriation after World War II

''The Ermine Hunt'' (c. 1490), a pen and ink drawing by Leonardo da Vinci

Category:Looting of Poland in World War II

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance

Category:Collection of the Czartoryski Museum

Leonardo da Vinci#First Milanese period (c. 1482–1499)

"Monuments Men" – Frank P. Albright, Everett Parker Lesley, Joe D. Espinosa – and Polish liaison officer [[Karol Estreicher (junior)


Lady with an Ermine

Prompt: Explain the The Lady about the Description of this artwork, Lady with an Ermine.

The subject has been identified with reasonable certainty as Cecilia Gallerani, the mistress of Leonardo's Milanese employer, Ludovico Sforza. She looks to her left at something out of frame, toward the light, where the biographer Walter Isaacson suggests Ludovico is. Following the marriage of Isabella of Aragon, Duchess of Milan and Gian Galeazzo Sforza, her 'Spanish style' dress would have been particularly fashionable. She has a silk sbernia on over her left shoulder, though Leonardo has simplified the traditional manner of wearing—where it would be draped over both shoulders—potentially to avoid too much complication in the various elements of the painting. Her right shoulder shows an ornately embroidered gold band over a velvet dress. Again, Leonardo has simplified the design, by having the left shoulder band covered by the sbernia, so as to not take away from the animal's detailed head. Her coiffure, known as a coazzone, confines her hair smoothly to her head with two bands of it bound on either side of her face and a long plait at the back. Her hair is held in place by a fine gauze veil with a woven border of gold-wound threads, a black band, and a sheath over the plait.As in many of Leonardo's paintings, the composition comprises a pyramidic spiral and the sitter is caught in the motion of turning to her left, reflecting Leonardo's lifelong preoccupation with the dynamics of movement. The three-quarter profile portrait was one of his many innovations. Il Moro's court poet, Bernardo Bellincioni, was the first to propose that Cecilia was poised as if listening to an unseen speaker. This work in particular shows Leonardo's expertise in painting the human form. The artist painted Cecilia's outstretched hand with a lot of detail, including the shape of each fingernail, the lines around her knuckles, and even the way the tendon in her bent finger moved as it bentA recent study brings to the forefront and supports another so far little-followed hypothesis: the heroic character of Caterina Sforza, the lioness of Romagna, is proposed as being the model of this allegorical representation in which the mental strength and beauty that were attributed to Amazons in mythology.

Category:Art and cultural repatriation after World War II

''The Ermine Hunt'' (c. 1490), a pen and ink drawing by Leonardo da Vinci

Category:Looting of Poland in World War II

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance

Category:Collection of the Czartoryski Museum

Leonardo da Vinci#First Milanese period (c. 1482–1499)

"Monuments Men" – Frank P. Albright, Everett Parker Lesley, Joe D. Espinosa – and Polish liaison officer [[Karol Estreicher (junior)


Lady with an Ermine

Prompt: In Lady with an Ermine, how is the The Lady of the Description explained?

The subject has been identified with reasonable certainty as Cecilia Gallerani, the mistress of Leonardo's Milanese employer, Ludovico Sforza. She looks to her left at something out of frame, toward the light, where the biographer Walter Isaacson suggests Ludovico is. Following the marriage of Isabella of Aragon, Duchess of Milan and Gian Galeazzo Sforza, her 'Spanish style' dress would have been particularly fashionable. She has a silk sbernia on over her left shoulder, though Leonardo has simplified the traditional manner of wearing—where it would be draped over both shoulders—potentially to avoid too much complication in the various elements of the painting. Her right shoulder shows an ornately embroidered gold band over a velvet dress. Again, Leonardo has simplified the design, by having the left shoulder band covered by the sbernia, so as to not take away from the animal's detailed head. Her coiffure, known as a coazzone, confines her hair smoothly to her head with two bands of it bound on either side of her face and a long plait at the back. Her hair is held in place by a fine gauze veil with a woven border of gold-wound threads, a black band, and a sheath over the plait.As in many of Leonardo's paintings, the composition comprises a pyramidic spiral and the sitter is caught in the motion of turning to her left, reflecting Leonardo's lifelong preoccupation with the dynamics of movement. The three-quarter profile portrait was one of his many innovations. Il Moro's court poet, Bernardo Bellincioni, was the first to propose that Cecilia was poised as if listening to an unseen speaker. This work in particular shows Leonardo's expertise in painting the human form. The artist painted Cecilia's outstretched hand with a lot of detail, including the shape of each fingernail, the lines around her knuckles, and even the way the tendon in her bent finger moved as it bentA recent study brings to the forefront and supports another so far little-followed hypothesis: the heroic character of Caterina Sforza, the lioness of Romagna, is proposed as being the model of this allegorical representation in which the mental strength and beauty that were attributed to Amazons in mythology.

Category:Art and cultural repatriation after World War II

''The Ermine Hunt'' (c. 1490), a pen and ink drawing by Leonardo da Vinci

Category:Looting of Poland in World War II

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance

Category:Collection of the Czartoryski Museum

Leonardo da Vinci#First Milanese period (c. 1482–1499)

"Monuments Men" – Frank P. Albright, Everett Parker Lesley, Joe D. Espinosa – and Polish liaison officer [[Karol Estreicher (junior)


Lady with an Ermine

Prompt: Describe the characteristics of the The Lady in Lady with an Ermine's Description.

The subject has been identified with reasonable certainty as Cecilia Gallerani, the mistress of Leonardo's Milanese employer, Ludovico Sforza. She looks to her left at something out of frame, toward the light, where the biographer Walter Isaacson suggests Ludovico is. Following the marriage of Isabella of Aragon, Duchess of Milan and Gian Galeazzo Sforza, her 'Spanish style' dress would have been particularly fashionable. She has a silk sbernia on over her left shoulder, though Leonardo has simplified the traditional manner of wearing—where it would be draped over both shoulders—potentially to avoid too much complication in the various elements of the painting. Her right shoulder shows an ornately embroidered gold band over a velvet dress. Again, Leonardo has simplified the design, by having the left shoulder band covered by the sbernia, so as to not take away from the animal's detailed head. Her coiffure, known as a coazzone, confines her hair smoothly to her head with two bands of it bound on either side of her face and a long plait at the back. Her hair is held in place by a fine gauze veil with a woven border of gold-wound threads, a black band, and a sheath over the plait.As in many of Leonardo's paintings, the composition comprises a pyramidic spiral and the sitter is caught in the motion of turning to her left, reflecting Leonardo's lifelong preoccupation with the dynamics of movement. The three-quarter profile portrait was one of his many innovations. Il Moro's court poet, Bernardo Bellincioni, was the first to propose that Cecilia was poised as if listening to an unseen speaker. This work in particular shows Leonardo's expertise in painting the human form. The artist painted Cecilia's outstretched hand with a lot of detail, including the shape of each fingernail, the lines around her knuckles, and even the way the tendon in her bent finger moved as it bentA recent study brings to the forefront and supports another so far little-followed hypothesis: the heroic character of Caterina Sforza, the lioness of Romagna, is proposed as being the model of this allegorical representation in which the mental strength and beauty that were attributed to Amazons in mythology.

Category:Art and cultural repatriation after World War II

''The Ermine Hunt'' (c. 1490), a pen and ink drawing by Leonardo da Vinci

Category:Looting of Poland in World War II

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance

Category:Collection of the Czartoryski Museum

Leonardo da Vinci#First Milanese period (c. 1482–1499)

"Monuments Men" – Frank P. Albright, Everett Parker Lesley, Joe D. Espinosa – and Polish liaison officer [[Karol Estreicher (junior)


Lady with an Ermine

Prompt: In the context of Lady with an Ermine, explain the The ermine and the Description.

The animal resting in Cecilia's arms is usually known as an ermine. Commentators have noted that it is too large to be an actual ermine, but its size is explained by its being of a largely symbolic nature. The art historian Luke Syson notes that "Naturalism is not the point here; Leonardo has created a mythical beast, the composite of several animals he drew at this time". There are several interpretations of the ermine's significance and they are often used in combination with each other. In its winter coat, the ermine was a traditional symbol of purity and moderation, as it was believed it would face death rather than soil its white coat.In his old age, Leonardo compiled a bestiary in which he recorded: "The ermine out of moderation never eats but once a day, and it would rather let itself be captured by hunters than take refuge in a dirty lair, in order not to stain its purity." He repeats this idea in another note, "Moderation curbs all the vices. The ermine prefers to die rather than soil itself." A drawing by Leonardo in pen and ink of c. 1490, housed at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, depicts an ermine representing these ideals by surrendering to a hunter. The ermine has also been noted to have a personal significance to Ludovico Sforza, as he would use it as a personal emblem, having been appointed by Ferdinand I as a member of the Order of the Ermine in 1488. Alternatively, the ermine could be a pun on Cecilia's surname: The Ancient Greek term for ermine, or other weasel-like species of animals, is galê (γαλῆ) or galéē (γαλέη). Such allusions were particularly popular in Renaissance culture; Leonardo himself had done something similar in his earlier work, Ginevra de' Benci, when he surrounded Ginevra with a juniper tree, or ginepro in Italian. Krystyna Moczulska suggests that the ermine follows the meaning of an ermine or weasel in classical literature, where it relates to pregnancy, sometimes as an animal that protected pregnant women. Around the time of the painting's creation, Cecilia was known to be pregnant with Ludovico's illegitimate son.The ermine can also be understood in the context of Cecilia's marriage to Count Lodovico Bergamino, which took place soon after the birth of her son by Ludovico in 1491. The ermine was a common motif in representations of chastity in Renaissance Italy, popularized by its appearance as an attribute of Chastity in Petrarch's poem I Trionfi. Petrarch's poem, which describes Chasity as triumphing over Love, was often depicted in lavishly decorated chests (called cassone) which formed an important part of the wedding trousseau of brides from prominent backgrounds. In such a context, the ermine, as a symbol of chastity, also symbolizes marital fidelity. The presence of the ermine thus points both to Cecilia's connection with Ludovico as well as her upcoming marriage to Bergamino.

Category:Art and cultural repatriation after World War II

''The Ermine Hunt'' (c. 1490), a pen and ink drawing by Leonardo da Vinci

Category:Looting of Poland in World War II

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance

Category:Collection of the Czartoryski Museum

Leonardo da Vinci#First Milanese period (c. 1482–1499)

"Monuments Men" – Frank P. Albright, Everett Parker Lesley, Joe D. Espinosa – and Polish liaison officer [[Karol Estreicher (junior)


Lady with an Ermine

Prompt: Explain the The ermine about the Description of this artwork, Lady with an Ermine.

The animal resting in Cecilia's arms is usually known as an ermine. Commentators have noted that it is too large to be an actual ermine, but its size is explained by its being of a largely symbolic nature. The art historian Luke Syson notes that "Naturalism is not the point here; Leonardo has created a mythical beast, the composite of several animals he drew at this time". There are several interpretations of the ermine's significance and they are often used in combination with each other. In its winter coat, the ermine was a traditional symbol of purity and moderation, as it was believed it would face death rather than soil its white coat.In his old age, Leonardo compiled a bestiary in which he recorded: "The ermine out of moderation never eats but once a day, and it would rather let itself be captured by hunters than take refuge in a dirty lair, in order not to stain its purity." He repeats this idea in another note, "Moderation curbs all the vices. The ermine prefers to die rather than soil itself." A drawing by Leonardo in pen and ink of c. 1490, housed at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, depicts an ermine representing these ideals by surrendering to a hunter. The ermine has also been noted to have a personal significance to Ludovico Sforza, as he would use it as a personal emblem, having been appointed by Ferdinand I as a member of the Order of the Ermine in 1488. Alternatively, the ermine could be a pun on Cecilia's surname: The Ancient Greek term for ermine, or other weasel-like species of animals, is galê (γαλῆ) or galéē (γαλέη). Such allusions were particularly popular in Renaissance culture; Leonardo himself had done something similar in his earlier work, Ginevra de' Benci, when he surrounded Ginevra with a juniper tree, or ginepro in Italian. Krystyna Moczulska suggests that the ermine follows the meaning of an ermine or weasel in classical literature, where it relates to pregnancy, sometimes as an animal that protected pregnant women. Around the time of the painting's creation, Cecilia was known to be pregnant with Ludovico's illegitimate son.The ermine can also be understood in the context of Cecilia's marriage to Count Lodovico Bergamino, which took place soon after the birth of her son by Ludovico in 1491. The ermine was a common motif in representations of chastity in Renaissance Italy, popularized by its appearance as an attribute of Chastity in Petrarch's poem I Trionfi. Petrarch's poem, which describes Chasity as triumphing over Love, was often depicted in lavishly decorated chests (called cassone) which formed an important part of the wedding trousseau of brides from prominent backgrounds. In such a context, the ermine, as a symbol of chastity, also symbolizes marital fidelity. The presence of the ermine thus points both to Cecilia's connection with Ludovico as well as her upcoming marriage to Bergamino.

Category:Art and cultural repatriation after World War II

''The Ermine Hunt'' (c. 1490), a pen and ink drawing by Leonardo da Vinci

Category:Looting of Poland in World War II

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance

Category:Collection of the Czartoryski Museum

Leonardo da Vinci#First Milanese period (c. 1482–1499)

"Monuments Men" – Frank P. Albright, Everett Parker Lesley, Joe D. Espinosa – and Polish liaison officer [[Karol Estreicher (junior)


Lady with an Ermine

Prompt: In Lady with an Ermine, how is the The ermine of the Description explained?

The animal resting in Cecilia's arms is usually known as an ermine. Commentators have noted that it is too large to be an actual ermine, but its size is explained by its being of a largely symbolic nature. The art historian Luke Syson notes that "Naturalism is not the point here; Leonardo has created a mythical beast, the composite of several animals he drew at this time". There are several interpretations of the ermine's significance and they are often used in combination with each other. In its winter coat, the ermine was a traditional symbol of purity and moderation, as it was believed it would face death rather than soil its white coat.In his old age, Leonardo compiled a bestiary in which he recorded: "The ermine out of moderation never eats but once a day, and it would rather let itself be captured by hunters than take refuge in a dirty lair, in order not to stain its purity." He repeats this idea in another note, "Moderation curbs all the vices. The ermine prefers to die rather than soil itself." A drawing by Leonardo in pen and ink of c. 1490, housed at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, depicts an ermine representing these ideals by surrendering to a hunter. The ermine has also been noted to have a personal significance to Ludovico Sforza, as he would use it as a personal emblem, having been appointed by Ferdinand I as a member of the Order of the Ermine in 1488. Alternatively, the ermine could be a pun on Cecilia's surname: The Ancient Greek term for ermine, or other weasel-like species of animals, is galê (γαλῆ) or galéē (γαλέη). Such allusions were particularly popular in Renaissance culture; Leonardo himself had done something similar in his earlier work, Ginevra de' Benci, when he surrounded Ginevra with a juniper tree, or ginepro in Italian. Krystyna Moczulska suggests that the ermine follows the meaning of an ermine or weasel in classical literature, where it relates to pregnancy, sometimes as an animal that protected pregnant women. Around the time of the painting's creation, Cecilia was known to be pregnant with Ludovico's illegitimate son.The ermine can also be understood in the context of Cecilia's marriage to Count Lodovico Bergamino, which took place soon after the birth of her son by Ludovico in 1491. The ermine was a common motif in representations of chastity in Renaissance Italy, popularized by its appearance as an attribute of Chastity in Petrarch's poem I Trionfi. Petrarch's poem, which describes Chasity as triumphing over Love, was often depicted in lavishly decorated chests (called cassone) which formed an important part of the wedding trousseau of brides from prominent backgrounds. In such a context, the ermine, as a symbol of chastity, also symbolizes marital fidelity. The presence of the ermine thus points both to Cecilia's connection with Ludovico as well as her upcoming marriage to Bergamino.

Category:Art and cultural repatriation after World War II

''The Ermine Hunt'' (c. 1490), a pen and ink drawing by Leonardo da Vinci

Category:Looting of Poland in World War II

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance

Category:Collection of the Czartoryski Museum

Leonardo da Vinci#First Milanese period (c. 1482–1499)

"Monuments Men" – Frank P. Albright, Everett Parker Lesley, Joe D. Espinosa – and Polish liaison officer [[Karol Estreicher (junior)


Lady with an Ermine

Prompt: Describe the characteristics of the The ermine in Lady with an Ermine's Description.

The animal resting in Cecilia's arms is usually known as an ermine. Commentators have noted that it is too large to be an actual ermine, but its size is explained by its being of a largely symbolic nature. The art historian Luke Syson notes that "Naturalism is not the point here; Leonardo has created a mythical beast, the composite of several animals he drew at this time". There are several interpretations of the ermine's significance and they are often used in combination with each other. In its winter coat, the ermine was a traditional symbol of purity and moderation, as it was believed it would face death rather than soil its white coat.In his old age, Leonardo compiled a bestiary in which he recorded: "The ermine out of moderation never eats but once a day, and it would rather let itself be captured by hunters than take refuge in a dirty lair, in order not to stain its purity." He repeats this idea in another note, "Moderation curbs all the vices. The ermine prefers to die rather than soil itself." A drawing by Leonardo in pen and ink of c. 1490, housed at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, depicts an ermine representing these ideals by surrendering to a hunter. The ermine has also been noted to have a personal significance to Ludovico Sforza, as he would use it as a personal emblem, having been appointed by Ferdinand I as a member of the Order of the Ermine in 1488. Alternatively, the ermine could be a pun on Cecilia's surname: The Ancient Greek term for ermine, or other weasel-like species of animals, is galê (γαλῆ) or galéē (γαλέη). Such allusions were particularly popular in Renaissance culture; Leonardo himself had done something similar in his earlier work, Ginevra de' Benci, when he surrounded Ginevra with a juniper tree, or ginepro in Italian. Krystyna Moczulska suggests that the ermine follows the meaning of an ermine or weasel in classical literature, where it relates to pregnancy, sometimes as an animal that protected pregnant women. Around the time of the painting's creation, Cecilia was known to be pregnant with Ludovico's illegitimate son.The ermine can also be understood in the context of Cecilia's marriage to Count Lodovico Bergamino, which took place soon after the birth of her son by Ludovico in 1491. The ermine was a common motif in representations of chastity in Renaissance Italy, popularized by its appearance as an attribute of Chastity in Petrarch's poem I Trionfi. Petrarch's poem, which describes Chasity as triumphing over Love, was often depicted in lavishly decorated chests (called cassone) which formed an important part of the wedding trousseau of brides from prominent backgrounds. In such a context, the ermine, as a symbol of chastity, also symbolizes marital fidelity. The presence of the ermine thus points both to Cecilia's connection with Ludovico as well as her upcoming marriage to Bergamino.

Category:Art and cultural repatriation after World War II

''The Ermine Hunt'' (c. 1490), a pen and ink drawing by Leonardo da Vinci

Category:Looting of Poland in World War II

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance

Category:Collection of the Czartoryski Museum

Leonardo da Vinci#First Milanese period (c. 1482–1499)

"Monuments Men" – Frank P. Albright, Everett Parker Lesley, Joe D. Espinosa – and Polish liaison officer [[Karol Estreicher (junior)


Lady with an Ermine

Prompt: Focus on Lady with an Ermine and explain the Attribution.

It was not until the 20th century that the Lady with an Ermine was widely accepted by scholars to be a work of Leonardo. The attribution is due to the style of chiaroscuro, intricate detail and "contemplative tone" typical of Leonardo.

Category:Art and cultural repatriation after World War II

''The Ermine Hunt'' (c. 1490), a pen and ink drawing by Leonardo da Vinci

Category:Looting of Poland in World War II

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance

Category:Collection of the Czartoryski Museum

Leonardo da Vinci#First Milanese period (c. 1482–1499)

"Monuments Men" – Frank P. Albright, Everett Parker Lesley, Joe D. Espinosa – and Polish liaison officer [[Karol Estreicher (junior)


Lady with an Ermine

Prompt: Explain the Attribution of this artwork, Lady with an Ermine.

It was not until the 20th century that the Lady with an Ermine was widely accepted by scholars to be a work of Leonardo. The attribution is due to the style of chiaroscuro, intricate detail and "contemplative tone" typical of Leonardo.

Category:Art and cultural repatriation after World War II

''The Ermine Hunt'' (c. 1490), a pen and ink drawing by Leonardo da Vinci

Category:Looting of Poland in World War II

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance

Category:Collection of the Czartoryski Museum

Leonardo da Vinci#First Milanese period (c. 1482–1499)

"Monuments Men" – Frank P. Albright, Everett Parker Lesley, Joe D. Espinosa – and Polish liaison officer [[Karol Estreicher (junior)


Lady with an Ermine

Prompt: How does Lady with an Ermine explain its Attribution?

It was not until the 20th century that the Lady with an Ermine was widely accepted by scholars to be a work of Leonardo. The attribution is due to the style of chiaroscuro, intricate detail and "contemplative tone" typical of Leonardo.

Category:Art and cultural repatriation after World War II

''The Ermine Hunt'' (c. 1490), a pen and ink drawing by Leonardo da Vinci

Category:Looting of Poland in World War II

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance

Category:Collection of the Czartoryski Museum

Leonardo da Vinci#First Milanese period (c. 1482–1499)

"Monuments Men" – Frank P. Albright, Everett Parker Lesley, Joe D. Espinosa – and Polish liaison officer [[Karol Estreicher (junior)


Lady with an Ermine

Prompt: In Lady with an Ermine, how is the Attribution discussed?

It was not until the 20th century that the Lady with an Ermine was widely accepted by scholars to be a work of Leonardo. The attribution is due to the style of chiaroscuro, intricate detail and "contemplative tone" typical of Leonardo.

Category:Art and cultural repatriation after World War II

''The Ermine Hunt'' (c. 1490), a pen and ink drawing by Leonardo da Vinci

Category:Looting of Poland in World War II

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance

Category:Collection of the Czartoryski Museum

Leonardo da Vinci#First Milanese period (c. 1482–1499)

"Monuments Men" – Frank P. Albright, Everett Parker Lesley, Joe D. Espinosa – and Polish liaison officer [[Karol Estreicher (junior)


Lady with an Ermine

Prompt: Focus on Lady with an Ermine and explain the Dating.

The Lady with an Ermine can securely be dated to Leonardo's first Milanese period (c. 1482–1499). Specifically, scholars date the painting to 1489–1491.

Category:Art and cultural repatriation after World War II

''The Ermine Hunt'' (c. 1490), a pen and ink drawing by Leonardo da Vinci

Category:Looting of Poland in World War II

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance

Category:Collection of the Czartoryski Museum

Leonardo da Vinci#First Milanese period (c. 1482–1499)

"Monuments Men" – Frank P. Albright, Everett Parker Lesley, Joe D. Espinosa – and Polish liaison officer [[Karol Estreicher (junior)


Lady with an Ermine

Prompt: Explain the Dating of this artwork, Lady with an Ermine.

The Lady with an Ermine can securely be dated to Leonardo's first Milanese period (c. 1482–1499). Specifically, scholars date the painting to 1489–1491.

Category:Art and cultural repatriation after World War II

''The Ermine Hunt'' (c. 1490), a pen and ink drawing by Leonardo da Vinci

Category:Looting of Poland in World War II

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance

Category:Collection of the Czartoryski Museum

Leonardo da Vinci#First Milanese period (c. 1482–1499)

"Monuments Men" – Frank P. Albright, Everett Parker Lesley, Joe D. Espinosa – and Polish liaison officer [[Karol Estreicher (junior)


Lady with an Ermine

Prompt: How does Lady with an Ermine explain its Dating?

The Lady with an Ermine can securely be dated to Leonardo's first Milanese period (c. 1482–1499). Specifically, scholars date the painting to 1489–1491.

Category:Art and cultural repatriation after World War II

''The Ermine Hunt'' (c. 1490), a pen and ink drawing by Leonardo da Vinci

Category:Looting of Poland in World War II

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance

Category:Collection of the Czartoryski Museum

Leonardo da Vinci#First Milanese period (c. 1482–1499)

"Monuments Men" – Frank P. Albright, Everett Parker Lesley, Joe D. Espinosa – and Polish liaison officer [[Karol Estreicher (junior)


Lady with an Ermine

Prompt: In Lady with an Ermine, how is the Dating discussed?

The Lady with an Ermine can securely be dated to Leonardo's first Milanese period (c. 1482–1499). Specifically, scholars date the painting to 1489–1491.

Category:Art and cultural repatriation after World War II

''The Ermine Hunt'' (c. 1490), a pen and ink drawing by Leonardo da Vinci

Category:Looting of Poland in World War II

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance

Category:Collection of the Czartoryski Museum

Leonardo da Vinci#First Milanese period (c. 1482–1499)

"Monuments Men" – Frank P. Albright, Everett Parker Lesley, Joe D. Espinosa – and Polish liaison officer [[Karol Estreicher (junior)


Lady with an Ermine

Prompt: In the context of Lady with an Ermine, explain the Historical context and the Background.

To some extent the painting includes traditional characteristics of Italian portraiture from the 1430s and 1440s; the coloring, for example, is particularly reminiscent of the Florentine quattrocento tradition.

Category:Art and cultural repatriation after World War II

''The Ermine Hunt'' (c. 1490), a pen and ink drawing by Leonardo da Vinci

Category:Looting of Poland in World War II

Leonardo da Vinci: The Mind of the Renaissance

Category:Collection of the Czartoryski Museum

Leonardo da Vinci#First Milanese period (c. 1482–1499)

"Monuments Men" – Frank P. Albright, Everett Parker Lesley, Joe D. Espinosa – and Polish liaison officer [[Karol Estreicher (junior)