
Sexy weasels in Renaissance art - okfine
https://ridiculouslyinteresting.com/2019/05/14/weasels-in-renaissance-art/
======
news_to_me
Super interesting article.

> Also, I refuse to put up one of those obnoxious “SIGN UP NOW!” pop-ups on
> the site, because I find them ridiculously annoying

I can't express enough gratitude for this, though.

~~~
hombre_fatal
I found it ingratiating.

------
taneq
I didn't realise that most of the sexy weasels would be dead. :(

~~~
NikkiA
It's been hundreds of years, weasels just don't have that kind of lifespan...

------
mci
When I was a kid, the Leonardo painting was called "Lady with a Weasel". Now
they claim it is "Lady with an Ermine". Most probably, though, it is "Lady
with a Polecat-Ferret Hybrid".

~~~
paulgerhardt
It's a polecat. No doubt about it.

Leonardo was, among other things, the period's best anatomist. He captured, in
charcoal, light bouncing off water like no artist, literally, ever before. He
came up with concepts for bridges, armored cars, clocks, and scuba gear. If he
wanted to, he could paint an ermine. He chose not to.

Cecilia Gallerani was the 15 year old Kim Kardashian of the era. After
multiple incidents with the teenager critiquing Leonardo's ability ("but it
does not look like me" she complained - "well yeah" he thought "in reality
your chin is much less pronounced and your nose more so"), invitations to
pretentious salons she would preside over which he could not decline, and
other confrontations with the slippery social climber he decided (at great
personal risk) to pull the wool over her eyes a bit and paint her with an
animal more inline with her behavior.

Her lover (and Leonardo's patron) did likely see through all this. Ludovico
Sforza was a savvy guy, and having gone on his share of hunts (not to mention
being a member of the Knights of Ermine), also would know the difference
between a spade and a shovel as it were, but his life was further complicated
by a marriage to a different 15 year old later that year. The best he could do
was come up with a pretense to not show the painting too widely amongst the
cognoscenti - which is exactly what happened.

~~~
the_af
Very interesting, thanks! But that would make the explanation from the article
false, wouldn't it? If it's not an ermine, then it cannot be a "message" to
Cecilia's lover, a Knight of Ermine. This secret message is lost if both
Leonardo and Ludovico know it's not an ermine but a polecat...

(As an unrelated aside, polecat-ferrets are forever linked in my mind to
Sredni Vashtar, that wonderful short story by Saki!)

~~~
paulgerhardt
Not false exactly - I think the "Lady with Ermine" interpretation is still the
literal reading of the painting. The white coat speaks to that not to mention
the current owners have incentives to promote it as such. Reading it as
"Obnoxious Merchant's Girl Pretending to be a Lady Seated with a Polecat
Pretending to be an Ermine" would be subtext inadmissible without further
explanation which I attempted to provide above. Namely: means, motive, and
opportunity.

If one does want to be literal about it, the painting was made at the same
time as his Vitruvian Man studies. Relative body proportions would have been
top of mind for Leonardo at this time. That "ermine" is the same length (if
not quite a bit longer) than her arm. Assuming she's conservatively 140cm tall
(4'6") - her arm and the "ermine" would be 55cm long (1'9") (or more!). A
quick cross reference with typical sizes for these creatures[1] - shows that
it's just barely above the size of a typical polecat but more than twice the
size of any stoat (an ermine in non winter colors). Proportionally it’s the
difference between a chipmunk and a squirrel.

Put another way, if that actually is an ermine, then that makes her 75cm
(2'6") tall. Just cross reference the size with the ermine in portrait of
Elizabeth I below it. If he explicitly called it a polecat (a creature more
associated with its foul smell and ugly temperament than any true nobility -
that Sredni Vashtar story is great btw - thanks for that) he would have been
out of a job. Or worse. This is the era of Machiavellian politics.

He may have chosen to sleight her in this way because he could plausibly deny
it to her face "Well, yes of course that's an ermine, it just happens to be a
realllly strong ermine - it's a symbol for your lover, the Knight of Ermine,
you see" or if pressed by Ludovico to reveal the 'true' message: "Ok, fine you
got me, this creature may have a white coat but it is not true nobility. As
you would know my lord, what with her being formerly engaged to your rival and
all."

From a Machiavellian perspective, Ludovico may not have cared one way or
another. She was the daughter of a very wealthy merchant betrothed to his
rival. By taking her as his concubine he deprived his rival of access to
capital.

[1] [http://deskarati.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/01/012615_1236_...](http://deskarati.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/01/012615_1236_4.png)

------
classichasclass
Once you see it you can't unsee it, apparently.

One wonders what other bizarre cultural subtexts we're missing in other
historical art periods.

~~~
dalbasal
Michaelangelo's "creation of Adam" depicts God as a human brain. Apparently
nobody noticed untill the 90s. It's hard not to see it when you see it. A lot
of fun interesting possibilities for deep metaphor.

[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CA4SF_GUkAAiJ5S.jpg?format=jpg&n...](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CA4SF_GUkAAiJ5S.jpg?format=jpg&name=small)

PS: reason for the downvotes? just curious.

~~~
interfixus
I share your curiosity: Who on earth would downvote this? Quirky, interesting
new titbit for our collection of trivia and learned matter, thank you.

~~~
colanderman
Probably because of the source (Cracked.com, a humor site, albeit one which
does often share interesting knowledge in a quirky way). Downvoters could be
reading the post as a joke rather than in earnest.

Apparently it _is_ a legitimate published theory, as noted in Wikipedia:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Creation_of_Adam#Portrayal...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Creation_of_Adam#Portrayal_of_the_human_brain)
So is the theory that the shape represents the postpartum uterus, which seems
thematically more fitting.

~~~
dalbasal
That would be my fault. I just googled for an image.

------
erikig
These were probably the visual memes of their age and seem to have survived
primarily because their patrons were able to pay for them to be immortalized.

------
miguelmota
Had no idea that dead weasels were used as fashion items.

That is a very interesting website, some freaky stuff on there.

~~~
masklinn
> A zibellino, flea-fur or fur tippet is a women's fashion accessory popular
> in the later 15th and 16th centuries. A zibellino, from the Italian word for
> "sable", is the pelt of a sable or marten worn draped at the neck or hanging
> at the waist, or carried in the hand. The plural is zibellini. Some
> zibellini were fitted with faces and paws of goldsmith's work with jeweled
> eyes and pearl earrings, while unadorned furs were also fashionable.

TIL today's fashion really is no dumber than it was 5 centuries ago.

~~~
mcguire
Take note of the name: flea-fur. IIRC, the idea was that fleas, lice, and
other parasites would jump onto the fur rather than you.

I doubt it worked, but people weren't any smarter back then, either.

------
carlob
Obligatory negative HN comment: it's Lorenzo Lotto, not Lorenzo Lorro. This
mistake is repeated 4 times in the article!

------
mywittyname
I find it interesting that the Lynx as a symbol of a childless woman has held
into the modern era: cat ladies.

