Portrait of a Young Woman

Lorenzo di Credi trained in the busy Florentine workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio, alongside a slightly older apprentice named Leonardo da Vinci, and he never quite stopped answering him. This portrait, from around 1490, borrows its idea straight from Leonardo's picture of Ginevra de' Benci: a young woman set before a juniper bush. The juniper, ginepro in Italian, is a quiet pun on a name, and the sitter here has been identified as one Ginevra, the widow of Credi's own brother, a goldsmith. That would explain the black she wears and the ring she holds between her fingers. The panel has suffered over the centuries and is damaged in places. Even so, the pale, still face and the small gold ring have come through it.