The Lady with an Ermine
Cecilia and her ermine โ the last room's throne.
Zygmunt Put โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Scotch Mist โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Dorota Matloch โ CC BY 3.0 ยท Dorota Matloch โ CC BY 3.0
Prince Czartoryski bought her for his mother (1798) โ the family hid her from Russia's tsar, smuggled her to Paris, brought her home, hid her from the Nazis, who found her for governor Frank's residence โ the Allies recovering her (1946). The family sold the whole collection to the state (2016) at a token price, a gift to the nation โ the Lady now every Pole's property.
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The Czartoryski is home of Poland's most famous painting: the Lady with an Ermine โ Leonardo da Vinci (1490) painting Cecilia Gallerani, the Duke of Milan's beloved, with her white animal: one of only four Leonardo oil women on earth (with the Mona Lisa and her sisters) โ her room alone the journey's purpose, her story an epic: hidden from tsars by princesses, looted by the Nazis for Hans Frank's villa, returned 1946. The museum itself is Poland's oldest (1796): Princess Czartoryska gathered Poland's relics to rescue memory after the partitions โ a Rembrandt (the Good Samaritan landscape, his only such scene in Poland), royal keepsakes and Ottomanica (a complete grand vizier's tent) in a splendidly restored house. An elegant, lightly crowded ninety minutes steps from the Florian Gate โ and the painting closes the route, never opens it: the last room is her throne.
Cecilia and her ermine โ the last room's throne.
Vienna's Ottoman spoils entire.
Pijarska 15, 31-015 Krakow