| Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1492 at a Tuscan | | | | arms. Second, the ermine was considered to be a |
| farmhouse in Anchiano, Italy, near the town of Vinci | | | | symbol of virtue and purity. And finally, it was a play |
| where he spent most of his childhood. He was the | | | | on Cecilia Gallerani's name since the Greek name for |
| son of Ser Piero and a girl called Caterina who | | | | ermine is "galee". |
| worked for him. After Leonardo was born, the father | | | | In Leonardo's notebooks, he wrote that the ermine |
| and mother did not remain together. Only recently | | | | eats every other day. Most likely the ermine, an |
| have details of Leonardo's birth mother come to light. | | | | animal related to the sable and weasel, stayed in the |
| In 2002, Alessandro Vezzosi, Director of the | | | | studio while the painting was being completed. In the |
| Leonardo da Vinci Museum in Vinci, Italy, told the | | | | Renaissance period, soft-hair paint brushes were |
| press they had found substantial proof Leonardo's | | | | made of ermine tail tips. Brushes were also made |
| mother was a slave girl and not a peasant girl, as | | | | from squirrel fur and fastened into goose or hen |
| previously believed.(1) Vezzosi went on to report | | | | feathers - another reason the ermine might have |
| that Leonardo's father was a craftsman who owned | | | | been at home in the studio. |
| a Middle-Eastern female slave named Caterina. And, | | | | Leonardo da Vinci included cats in many of his |
| according to their discovery, a few months after | | | | sketches. On one sheet of animal sketches in his |
| Caterina gave birth to Leonardo, she was married off | | | | notebook, the artist portrayed more than twenty |
| to one of the workers. | | | | cats, and one dragon. He drew cats in different |
| Leonardo lived in Anchiana and in Vinci until he was | | | | poses, alone, with other cats, and being cuddled and |
| eight years old. Afterward, he moved to Florence | | | | held. His sketches are lively and reveal the solemn |
| with his father. When Leonardo was 14, he became | | | | affection he had for felines. |
| an apprentice under the famed sculptor and painter | | | | Throughout the mid to late 1470s, Leonardo worked |
| Andrea del Verrocchio in Florence. In that period, | | | | on a series of different studies relating to the theme |
| Verrocchio was the leading Florentine artist. By the | | | | of the Madonna and the Christ Child, holding a cat. It |
| time Leonardo was between 21 and 23 years old, he | | | | was originally thought that no paintings existed |
| had become a very skilled painter. Verrocchio | | | | beyond his initial studies for these paintings. Recently; |
| permitted Leonardo to help with an important | | | | however, Madonna with the Cat, which is in the |
| painting, The Baptism of Christ (Uffizi Gallery, | | | | collection of industrialist Carlo Noya in Savona, Italy, |
| Florence). Leonardo painted the background and the | | | | was discovered to be a painting by none other than |
| kneeling angel. It is said that when Verrocchio saw | | | | Leonardo.(2) The painting is based on a legend about |
| that Leonardo could paint better than anyone he had | | | | a cat being born at the same moment as the baby |
| ever seen, including himself, he gave up painting for | | | | Jesus. |
| good. Verrocchio decided he would concentrate on | | | | Other sketches for paintings that feature animals and |
| sculpture. | | | | are based on a legend or myth is that of Leda and |
| Leonardo da Vinci was said to have a great love for | | | | the Swan. Although no actual paintings exist, there |
| animals, and his journals further illustrates this. He was | | | | are countless drawings. The story is that Leda was |
| a vegetarian, at least in the latter part of his life (we | | | | seduced by the God Zeus in the form of a swan and |
| don't have definite proof that he was a strict | | | | bore two eggs, which resulted in the creation of |
| vegetarian in his early life). He wrote, "The time will | | | | Helen of Troy with Clytemnestra, and Castor with |
| come when men such as I will look upon the murder | | | | Pollux. |
| of animals as they now look on the murder of men." | | | | Although there are countless studies and sketches |
| He also remarked, "The smallest feline is a | | | | made by Leonardo, only 13 or 14 actual paintings |
| masterpiece." | | | | exist today. One of these is Madonna and Child with |
| In the 1480s, Leonardo painted Lady With The | | | | St. Anne, painted from 1508 to 1510. The figures |
| Ermine. The Lady in the painting is Cecilia Gallerani, the | | | | depicted all relate to one another, and the baby |
| 17-year-old mistress of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of | | | | Jesus is shown tightly holding a little lamb. Da Vinci |
| Milan. She carries an ermine for three reasons. First, | | | | painted the lamb with sensitivity and detail. The lamb |
| for the Duke of Milan, having been appointed to the | | | | is symbolic of Jesus Christ's sacrificial death for |
| Order of the Ermine by Ferdinand I of Naples, the | | | | mankind. Leonardo's animal subjects are based on |
| ermine was the symbol of heraldry on his coat of | | | | reality and are filled with vitality. |