Sometimes art crosses any border and disintegrates cultural and commercial barriers… it is enough to know how to listen to it… and observe
We are on the threshold of 1500. Imagine the scene: a noble and beautiful woman is sitting on an armchair in one of the fabulous rooms of her estate, Villa Medici del Vascello which was donated to her by Ludovico il Moro. His clothing is sober and elegant and in his arms he holds an ermine, a rare animal symbol of purity. At a certain point the door opens, a provocatively enigmatic look is painted on the noble woman’s eyes, her mouth hints at a barely sketched smile while the ermine, surprised by what has happened, tightens the woman’s clothes with its nails seeking shelter and safety. It is a fraction of a second but thanks to Leonardo’s fabulous art we could talk about it for hours.
It was 1486 when Leonardo da Vinci portrayed Cecilia Gallerani in the famous painting known as “Lady with an Ermine”, a revolutionary work of art in terms of technique and innovation which in one fell swoop would make history of two great protagonists of the Renaissance.
Just as the splendid villa where Cecilia, an extraordinarily cultured woman in an era in which culture was a male monopoly, lived for most of her life comes to us directly from the history of those years. A hidden treasure that unfortunately few people know about but which retains a charm that defies time and whose visit provokes very intense emotions even for those who are not experts of history or architecture because its charm and beauty are able to overwhelm any barrier. It is one of the many masterpieces hidden away from the masses wrapped in their original beauty If you love experiencing history, art and culture out of the hidden path, contact me or read my articles and you will be catapulted into the Renaissance, dressed as a Duke, sipping good wine and feasting with joy, while the masses queue for hours for a selfie with Botticelli’s Venus which, in addition to communicating “yes, I have been there”, remains a mere meaningless commercial operation