Czartoryski Collection: East Meets West, with Leonardo in a starring role

When it comes to artistic reputations, nobody except perhaps Michelangelo ranks quite as high in the pantheon of art as Leonardo da Vinci. This is surprising in view of the fact that only a handful of his finished paintings survive. Indeed, there are just seven places in the world that can boast a finished painting by da Vinci, the Czartoryski Museum in Cracow, Poland, being one of them. The arrival in Japan of da Vinci’s Lady with an Ermine (c.1490) has therefore overshadowed the other works from the Polish museum now on display at the monumental Yokohama Museum of Art.

There are very few other famous artists in evidence. Perhaps Carlo Crivelli, here represented by the lackluster St. Anthony the Abbot and St. Lucy (c.1470), ranks a very distant second. I ask curator Hideko Numata if there is not a danger of the exhibition being seen like a movie with one big star and a supporting cast of unknowns?

"I see what you mean," she responds. "But if people come they can see other beautiful works like Vincenzo Catena's Virgin with Child."

Although Lady with an Ermine works a little like the cheese in a mousetrap, it is unquestionably a very tasty morsel. Kept in a room all by itself the painting is surrounded by an atmosphere of intense reverence with devotees standing enthralled, many of them busily sketching.

But this is not some celestial icon, but a fresh, candid portrait of a worldly beauty, Cecilia Gallerani, the mistress of Leonardo's patron, the Milanese strongman, Ludovico Sforza. Although the Mona Lisa best shows Leonardo's technique of sfumato (imperceptible changes in gradation of light and color), in other respects the Lady with an Ermine is superior to its more famous sister in the Louvre.

The Polish work is more refreshing in terms of composition and atmosphere, giving us the sense of a thinking, feeling being caught in a snapshot. There is also an intriguing visual hook in the ermine the lady holds. As a traditional symbol of purity and nobility, the weasel-like creature sits uneasily in the hands of the young temptress.

One can't help thinking that Leonardo chose it for visual reasons. With her hair tightly tied under a hair net, Gallerani’s head looks small while her hand looks unnaturally large and masculine. This jarring note attracts our attention, but is then expertly balanced by the presence of a creature with a relatively large head and tiny paws.

But the most interesting story at this exhibition is not Leonardo's but Poland's. When the Czartoryski Museum was founded in 1801, Poland had been literally wiped from the map and divided among its stronger neighbors. The founder Princess Izabela Czartoryski intended the museum to serve as an inspiration to the Polish people, reminding them of their glorious past. However, looking at the devotional paintings and mythological engravings from Italy, the Majolica vases from Spain, and the crystal and silverware from Germany, the impression the viewer is more likely to get is of a poor country cousin trying catch up with the sophisticated tastes of the West of Europe.

Nothing brings this home more strongly than an early 18th century painting, King Jan III Sobieski at Vienna 1683. This expansive work by an anonymous artist shows the Polish army saving Vienna from the besieging Turks. What strikes the viewer, however, is not the heroism of the Poles in the common defense of Europe, but the Asiatic look of their clothes and accouterments. With his exotic robes, fur hat, and curved saber, and with his wild-looking cavalrymen, some even mounted on camels, the Polish king looks every inch a Central Asian khan.

This exhibition suggests that Poland, despite its position at the edge of the great Eurasian plain, increasingly turned to Western Europe for its culture and identity. In this clash between the wildness of the steppes and influences from the West, Leonardo's painting is an exquisite detail.

Leonardo da Vinci Lady with an Ermine: Treasures from the Princes Czartoryski Museum ran until Apr. 7 at the Yokohama Museum of Art.

C.B.Liddell
International Herald Tribune Asahi Shimbun
9th March 2002