| Sumario: | This article centres on Cecilia Gallerani, the so‐called Lady with an Ermine (which is referred to as The Girl with an Ermine), and re‐examines the very young age at which Leonardo da Vinci painted this mistress of Ludovico Sforza, lord of Milan. It examines Gallerani's navigation of regional networks of power well beyond her time at court. Exploring inter‐related constructions of femininity and masculinity, moreover, the article critically examines visual representation and relations between sex, power and dominance. Crucially, 'The Girl as Mistress in Renaissance Italy' both reveals and interrogates the sexual violence and coercion on plain display (though long ignored by scholars) in this most familiar and canonical of Italian Renaissance paintings.
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