More than 3 years ago, the Ministry of Culture purchased the Czartoryski collection owned by Prince Adam Karol Czartoryski for about 500 million Zloties.
Consequently, it was possible to complete the renovation of the buildings belonging to the Czartoryski Museum and make them accessible to visitors again. This means that the lady with the Hermellino also returned to "its" museum after a stall phase.
There is no more famous painting on the visa. The story of the painting itself is fascinating. Starting from the purchase, wrapped in mystery, and the subsequent interpretations of the figure of the model and the animal he holds in his hand. Through the disbelief of the world experts that such a painting from such a renowned artist could be in a Polish collection. Finally with the history of the lady's journey, the evacuation, the looting, the damage, the nationalization, the reprivatization and finally the sale.
However, the above story would intrigue only the specialists if it were not for the artistic value of the painting and, consequently, for its financial value estimated at around 1.3 billion zloties. This makes the painting the most expensive work of art in the Polish collection.
The painting symbolically depicts the burning love between two people, but also captures the transitoriness of beauty.
The portrait of the adolescent Cecilia appears practically identical to how she looked over 500 years ago, although a few years after the painting, the model wrote that she had changed so much that no one would believe it depicted her.
However, let's give voice to Leonardo himself on what he thought of the painting:
"O wonderful mastery, you maintain the weak beauty of mortals alive, giving them more permanence than what the works of nature possess, continually changed by time, which lead to an inevitable old age".
The museum space can be very close in many places, so for the comfort of visitors, the number of people participating in the walk is limited.
