Ginevra de' Benci - Leonardo's Only Painting in the Americas
A stop on Washington DC National Mall Walking Tour, a free self-guided tour.
In gallery M6 on the West Building's Main Floor hangs a small portrait of a pale young woman against a dark juniper bush. Leonardo da Vinci painted Ginevra de' Benci in Florence around 1474 to 1478, when she was about 16.
The juniper is a pun: the Italian word for it is ginepro. Walk around the case to see the back of the panel, which is painted too, with a juniper sprig inside a wreath of laurel and palm and a Latin motto that means beauty adorns virtue.
The bottom of the panel was cut off at some point, probably removing Ginevra's hands. The gallery bought the painting in 1967 from the Prince of Liechtenstein for about 5 million dollars, then a record price for a painting.
Next, find the Dutch galleries and the gallery's paintings by Vermeer.
More on Wikipedia: Leonardo da Vinci
Stops on this tour
- Washington Monument
- National Museum of African American History and Cu
- National Museum of American History
- Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
- National Gallery of Art
- United States Capitol
- United States Botanic Garden
- National Museum of the American Indian
- National Air and Space Museum
- Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
- The Smithsonian Institution Building - The Castle
- Freer Gallery of Art
- Jefferson Memorial
- World War II Memorial
- Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
- Korean War Memorial
- Lincoln Memorial
- Vietnam Veterans Memorial
- White House Ellipse
- White House
- Lafayette Square