Portrait of a Woman (La Belle Ferronnière)

The nickname comes from a confusion in the French royal inventory with another picture, and from the jewel on her forehead, a ferronnière. She may be Lucrezia Crivelli, another of Ludovico Sforza's mistresses, but that identification is uncertain.

The parapet in front of her makes the picture a window. Look at the shadow side of her jaw: it is lit by red light bouncing off her dress. Leonardo wrote repeatedly that the surface of every body takes on the colour of what stands opposite it, and here the rule is visible in paint.

Some scholars think workshop assistants helped with parts of the panel, but the face is usually accepted as his.