I got the message about the Tate display (others will too I'm sure if they get Google Alerts on "ferrets" in their inboxes each day). "Ferreting out the truth about Leonardo's Ermine" The display of Leonardo Da Vinci pictures includes the famous "Lady with an Ermine" painting. My ophthalmologist (who knows I have ferrets) is from Europe and has seen the original when it was displayed for a short time to the public in the national museum in Krakow, Poland and she says it was just really beautiful. (She was curious about the animal since it looked too tame to be a mink or an ermine - she was interested to hear it was probably a ferret ). There's a Krakow website showing the picture http://www.krakow-info.com/dama.htm and you can click on a link below the picture to get an enlarged image. The ferret's coat looks a bit short, but some white ferrets do have fairly short coats - and it may be a summer picture. On some sites discussing the earliest depictions of ferrets as pets, it's suggested Leonardo probably knew it was a ferret since mink are small (this animal is a pretty good size - and placid) and the lady would be bleeding from being bitten. However, one site suggests the animal was painted in afterwards. Here's the original Daily Telegraph article on the crowd reactions to the painting: <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/leonardo-da-vinci/8884647/Will-The-Lady-with-an-Ermine-topple-the-Mona-Lisa-as-the-worlds-favourite-painting.html>http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/leonardo-da-vinci/8884647/Will-The-Lady-with-an-Ermine-topple-the-Mona-Lisa-as-the-worlds-favourite-painting.html> And here's a critique of what the creature is - along with a nice picture of a very cute handsome stoat/ermine in winter plumage. <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/letters/8916532/Ferreting-out-the-truth-about-Leonardos-ermine.html> There are other newspaper sites discussing the picture such as the Guardian site and numerous sites on-line discussing Cecilia Gallerani (The Lady) who seems to have led a long and interesting life. Meryl [Posted in FML 7257]