Anne Boleyn as the Sitter of Leonardo da Vinci’s La Belle Ferronière: A Hypothetical Reappraisal
The identity of the sitter in Leonardo da Vinci’s La Belle Ferronière has long been contested. Conventional attribution situates the portrait in Milan during the early 1490s, often linked to Lucrezia Crivelli or another lady of the Sforza court. This essay advances an alternative hypothesis: that the sitter is Anne Boleyn, portrayed during Leonardo’s final years at Amboise (1516–1519). While acknowledging the weight of dendrochronological and stylistic analysis pointing toward the 1490s, I argue that physiognomic concordance, historical context, and the plausible reuse of older panel supports warrant serious reconsideration of Anne Boleyn’s candidacy.
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