Her mien:
melancholic,
so cold those distant eyes.
No smiles escape her stern, set lips -
nor cries.
|
Author Notes
Leonardo da Vinci was commissioned to paint this portrait of a teenaged bride-to-be by her fiancee, twice her age, in 1474. Critics speculate that she was none too happy about her upcoming nuptials from the expression on her face. She is quite beautiful but lacks anything approaching joy.
In 1967 this portrait was acquired by the National Museum in Washington, D.C. for the unheard of price of 5 million dollars. A couple years later my future husband and I stood in front of this tiny painting, displayed in a plexiglass case, and both fell utterly in love with this girl. We seriously planned to name a daughter after her someday. Alas, by the time our daughter was born more than a decade later, Jennifer was too common a name, so we chose Miranda from Shakespeare's Tempest, but she knows she was almost Ginevra/Jennifer because of this haunting painting.
google Leonardo da Vinci Ginevra de Benci to see her.
|
|
