Mistress of Ludovico Sforza
Cecilia spoke Latin fluently and was said to be a gifted musician and singer. She also wrote poetry. In about 1489, she sat for Ludovico's court artist and engineer, Leonardo da Vinci, who painted her celebrated portrait, which is known as The Lady with an Ermine. Isabella d'Este, an admirer of the work of Leonardo da Vinci, asked to borrow the portrait, but Cecilia replied it no longer looked like her because she had been so young then and 'nobody seeing it and me together would suppose it was made for me'. She did not lend the portrait.
Even after Ludovico married Beatrice d'Este, Cecilia continued to keep her apartments in Ludovico's castle. She had a son, Cesare, on 3 May 1491 by Lodovico Sforza.
When Beatrice d'Este found out about their relationship, Ludovico was constrained to ask Cecilia to leave the Porta Giovia castle, the seat of the ducal court. She was first installed in the Verme Palace, and then given the Carmagnola Palace in 1492, when she married Count Ludovico Carminati de' Brambilla, known as "Il Bergamino". She bore her husband four children. After the death of both her husband and her son (1514–1515), she retired to San Giovanni in Croce, a castle near Cremona.
Cesare, the son of Cecilia and Ludovico Sforza was made abbot of the Church of San Nazaro Maggiore of Milan in 1498; in 1505, he became canon of Milan. He died in 1512.
Read more about this topic: Cecilia Gallerani
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