Description
Ginevra de’ Benci – the only Leonardo in America
Ginevra de’ Benci is Leonardo’s earliest surviving portrait and his only painting on public display outside Europe. He painted it around 1474–1478, when he was barely into his twenties. Our hand-painted reproduction on canvas brings this early masterpiece into your home, painted in oil on canvas.
The road to Washington
The painting remained for centuries with the princely family of Liechtenstein. In February 1967 the National Gallery of Art in Washington bought it from Prince Franz Josef II for five to six million dollars – at the time the highest price ever paid for a painting. With that purchase America gained its only publicly exhibited Leonardo; everything else stayed in Europe. The original is painted in oil on a wooden panel, and the painted surface measures 38.1 × 37 cm.
The juniper that hides her name
Behind Ginevra’s head spreads a dark juniper bush. It is no accidental plant: juniper in Italian is ginepro, a barely veiled play on the name Ginevra. At the same time juniper counted in the Renaissance as a sign of female virtue, so the plant states name and character at once. On the reverse of the panel Leonardo painted a sprig of juniper wreathed in laurel and palm, with the motto VIRTVTEM FORMA DECORAT – “Beauty adorns virtue”. The portrait therefore carries its own interpretation, painted on the other side.
A painting missing its lower part
The panel is no longer what it was. The bottom section was cut away at some point, most probably because of damage, and Ginevra’s hands were lost with it. Judging by the wreath on the reverse and by Leonardo’s studies of hands from the same years, the portrait originally extended lower and stood closer to an upright format. Ginevra’s face is therefore even more prominent today: pale, serious, almost withheld, with a gaze that passes by the viewer. It is precisely this cool detachment that separates the portrait from the amiable profile likenesses of her time.
A hand-painted reproduction for your home
Every reproduction of Ginevra de’ Benci is entirely hand-painted in oil on canvas – not a print, but a real painting created for you by an experienced artist. It is available in eight sizes, stretched on a wooden frame on request and in a frame from our 3D range. The almost square format works well above a sideboard, in a hallway, or paired with a second painting of similar dimensions. Among our canvas wall art you will also find Leonardo’s other female portraits: Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani, La Belle Ferronnière and Mona Lisa.
- Subject: Ginevra de’ Benci, Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1474–1478
- Technique: hand-painted oil painting on canvas, reproduction
- Sizes: 8 dimensions, stretched on a wooden frame on request
- Fact: the only Leonardo painting on public display outside Europe
