Guided tour
Très beau musée.
Admire the "Lady with an Ermine" which was painted by Leonardo da Vinci around 1489–1490 and is now one of Poland's most precious national treasures. You will join the guided tour in the English language and hear astonishing stories about these pieces of art.
Appreciate the subject of the portrait, Cecilia Gallerani, painted at a time when she was the mistress of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, and Leonardo was in the service of the duke. The painting is one of only four portraits of women painted by Leonardo considered by many to be the most beautiful. The portrait embodies the Renaissance ideal of an image as an illusion of natural vitality. The artist managed to achieve this thanks to his knowledge of anatomy and his skill with light features, which enabled him to create a three-dimensional human figure on the image plane. The original background, which was over-painted with black in the 19th century, was also modeled with light just like the figure, which must have given the impression of the model emerging from the shadows. The painting was purchased in ca. 1800 in Italy, by Adam Jerzy, the son of Princess Izabela Czartoryska, and donated to the Museum in Pulawy. The portrait became the property of the Republic of Poland in 2016.
