A room for the generation that invented the Florentine portrait
This gallery brings together portraits painted in Florence between roughly 1450 and 1500: Andrea del Castagno, Botticelli, Filippino Lippi and Perugino all show young Florentines in profile or three-quarter view, from a generation that turned the portrait into a genre in its own right rather than a mere accessory to a religious altarpiece. Perugino's portrait of Lorenzo di Credi even shows one painter depicting another, a sign of the close ties between the city's workshops.
1. A portrait, a juniper, and a pun
Ginevra de' Benci, painted by Leonardo da Vinci around 1474-1478, shows a young Florentine woman known for her beauty and her poetic intelligence, framed by the spiky leaves of a juniper bush. The choice is not decorative: in Italian, juniper is ginepro, a direct pun on the young woman's name. The panel has been cut down by about a third at the bottom, probably following early damage: Ginevra's hands, now lost, survive only in a preparatory drawing held at Windsor Castle.
On the reverse of the panel, a wreath of laurel and palm encircles the same juniper sprig, alongside the Latin motto "Virtutem Forma Decorat" — beauty adorns virtue.
2. A hidden motto, revealed by infrared
In 1991, an infrared examination revealed that a different inscription originally lay beneath the wreath on the reverse: "Virtus et Honor," the personal motto of Bernardo Bembo, Venetian ambassador to Florence in the 1470s. Poems exchanged at the time between Bembo and Ginevra point to a platonic relationship, in the tradition of courtly love, and suggest that it may have been Bembo who commissioned this portrait — before a repainting replaced his personal motto with the more neutral one visible today.
This change of patron, or of intended recipient, remains debated among art historians, but the discovery confirms that this small panel carries a more complicated history than Ginevra's serene face suggests.
3. A painting shipped in a suitcase
The National Gallery of Art bought the painting in 1967 from Prince Franz Joseph II of Liechtenstein for around $5 million — a world record price for a work of art at the time. Sensitive to humidity and temperature swings, the panel was fixed inside a waterproof American Tourister suitcase lined with foam and fitted with a thermometer and a hygrometer, itself wrapped in plastic inside a wooden crate for transport.
How much time
Look for the juniper sprig on both sides of the panel — front and back answer each other, and that is where Bernardo Bembo's story hides.
- Ginevra de' Benci (Leonardo da Vinci) — 12 minutes.
- The rest of the gallery (Botticelli, Filippino Lippi, Perugino) — 10 minutes.
Sources and verification
Checked against the official notices of the National Gallery of Art (nga.gov) and cross-checked with Wikipedia EN/FR.
- National Gallery of Art — Ginevra de' Benci [obverse], Leonardo da Vinci
- National Gallery of Art — 10 Surprising Facts About Ginevra de' Benci
- Smithsonian Magazine — Meet Ginevra de' Benci
- Wikipedia EN — Ginevra de' Benci
Displays and room openings can change. Check the National Gallery of Art website on the day of your visit before following a route.
Listen to the commentary in the gallery
This route gives you a thread to follow. In front of an artwork, CulturAll adds the audio commentary: photograph the work or its label, listen, then ask your questions.
