La Belle Ferronière

Meet a woman who has been staring back at visitors for more than five hundred years. Painted by Leonardo da Vinci in the 1490s, this portrait probably shows a lady of the Milanese court, quite possibly Lucrezia Crivelli, a mistress of Duke Ludovico Sforza. She turns slightly toward us with a calm, self-assured expression, her eyes catching yours no matter where you stand. The thin jeweled band across her forehead, called a ferronnière, is where the painting got its nickname, though that name was actually attached to it long after Leonardo finished the work.

The lighting is where Leonardo really shows off. Her face seems to glow out of the shadowy background, while the deep red of her gown looks warm and heavy enough to reach out and touch. He built her skin using his signature smoky shading, blending tones so gently that you cannot find a single hard edge on her. Today she hangs in the Louvre, only a short walk from the Mona Lisa, and the pair share the same guarded mystery. Nobody can say what she is thinking behind that steady look, and that unanswered question is exactly why people keep pausing in front of her.