Friday, January 15, 2016

Lady with an Ermine

Leonardo da Vinci, Oil on wood panel, 1489-1490


11 comments:

Chip Ahoy said...

Lady with a stoat.

john said...

Therapy weasel? I think not.

ricpic said...

That Leonardo, such a sly fellow, doing advance PR for Bo Derek.

AllenS said...

Why?

Rabel said...

VIGODA LIVES!
Grizzly Adams completes the celebrity hat trick.

Rabel said...

That's a stout stoat. Look at the definition in those triceps. Probably got a home gym down in his weasel hole in Georgetown or wherever it is that weasels live. Unless he's juicing on WGH which isn't kosher. At least he can claim that he's a weasel, what did you expect, it's his nature, unlike that bicycle guy.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Armstrong.

ampersand said...

She wouldn't be a lady if she was petting her beaver.

MamaM said...

That right hand is something else. One of the Imgur comments at the link notes the muscularity of the ferret, though it is the woman's large and long fingered, bony hand that takes center stage and mirrors the shape of the ferret's body, with a smaller version of potential power depicted by the ferret's claws.

Under Five Facts You Probably Didn't Know About Leonardo comes the fact that he lived with his mom until he was five and then with his father and a step-mother after that. With either or both of those situations adding to his awareness of which hand rules the world.

The Hand That Rules The World

Blessings on the hand of women!
Angels guard its strength and grace,
In the palace, cottage, hovel,
Oh, no matter where the place;
Would that never storms assailed it,
Rainbows ever gently curled;
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.
Infancy's the tender fountain,
Power may with beauty flow,
Mother's first to guide the streamlets,
From them souls unresting grow--
Grow on for the good or evil,
Sunshine streamed or evil hurled;
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.
Woman, how divine your mission
Here upon our natal sod!
Keep, oh, keep the young heart open
Always to the breath of God!
All true trophies of the ages
Are from mother-love impearled;
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.
Blessings on the hand of women!
Fathers, sons, and daughters cry,
And the sacred song is mingled
With the worship in the sky--
Mingles where no tempest darkens,
Rainbows evermore are hurled;
For the hand that rocks the cradle
Is the hand that rules the world.

William Ross Wallace

Methadras said...

What? No Mink?

AllenS said...

Having watched The Big Lebowski 371 times, I think that is a marmot.