BIANCA SFORZA THE LADY OF THE 

 AMBROSIANA 



" Quant 'e bella giovinezza 

 Che si fugge tuttavia ! 

 Chi vuol esser lieto, sia, 

 Di doman non c'e certezza." 



LORENZO DE' MEDICI. 



THERE are some portraits which have a strange and 

 peculiar fascination. Most of us recall unforgettable 

 faces by Giorgione and Titian, by Rembrandt and 

 Holbein, as well as the one supreme picture which has 

 laid its spell on all generations Leonardo's " Mona 

 Lisa." Something of the same mysterious charm be- 

 longs to the unknown "Lady of the Ambrosiana," in 

 Milan, a portrait which certainly came from Leonardo's 

 studio, if it was not actually painted by his hand. For 

 centuries this lovely profile hung in a dark corner of 

 Cardinal Federico Borromeo's Gallery, dirty and 

 neglected. But even in those ignorant days its sur- 

 passing beauty attracted the notice of connoisseurs. 

 Fifty years ago Otto Mundler praised its divine excel- 

 lence, and Gaillard, the accomplished French engraver, 

 revealed its charm to readers of the Gazette des Beaux 

 Arts in a plate executed only two years before his 

 premature death. Dr. Bode has told us of the young 



165 



