Guests turning as much as the Nationwide Gallery of Artwork (NGA) in Washington, DC, to see the one Leonardo da Vinci portray on public show within the Americas—his early portrait of a Florentine banker’s teenage daughter—take notice: the work is being moved from its typical perch within the galleries for Thirteenth-to Sixteenth-century Italian, French and Spanish works as they bear renovations.
Starting 17 July, Ginevra de’ Benci (1474-78) will probably be on view in gallery 39 of the NGA’s Neoclassical West Constructing, an area sometimes reserved mainly for Flemish and Netherlandish works of the identical period. Gallery six, the place the Leonardo often hangs alongside items by Andrea del Castagno, Sandro Botticelli, Filippino Lippi and others, will probably be closed for renovations till early subsequent 12 months.

Set up view of gallery six on the primary ground of the Nationwide Gallery’s West Constructing that includes Leonardo da Vinci’s Ginevra de’ Benci Courtesy the Nationwide Gallery of Artwork, Washington, DC
The Leonardo’s relocation coincides with the closure of the NGA’s foremost entrance dealing with the Nationwide Mall and about 20 different galleries on the bottom ground of the museum’s West Constructing. The closures are vital resulting from ongoing repairs and renovations to the constructing, together with the substitute of sections of its roof, upgrades to its entrance dealing with the Nationwide Mall and sprucing up its garden.
The NGA’s West Constructing, designed by John Russell Pope—who additionally designed the Jefferson Memorial and the British Museum’s Duveen Gallery—was the world’s largest marble constructing on the time of its inception. Constructed on the web site of president James A. Garfield’s assassination, it was accomplished in 1941.
Leonardo’s portrait of Ginevra de’ Benci, made when he was in his early to mid twenties, was held within the princely collections of Liechtenstein from the seventeenth century till the Sixties, when Prince Franz Josef II of Liechtenstein let or not it’s identified that the image was on the market. The NGA received out within the ensuing bidding battle, buying the portray in 1967 for $5m—the biggest sum ever paid for a chunk of artwork on the time. The museum had hosted Leonardo’s Mona Lisa 4 years prior throughout a uncommon travelling exhibit of the long-lasting work, which prompted a furor and lengthy queues in Washington.
The prized acquisition landed within the US capital beneath cowl of secrecy, with an FBI escort—utilizing the codename “the Chicken”—in January 1967. The museum’s press launch saying the acquisition acknowledged the enormity of the acquisition fairly plainly: “No different usually acknowledged portray by Leonardo is understood in non-public fingers or in any public assortment exterior Europe.” It was unveiled to nice fanfare on 17 March 1967, the thirtieth anniversary of the NGA’s founding.
Final 12 months, the NGA acquired the Leonardo drawing Grotesque Head of an Outdated Lady (1489-90), which is a first-rate instance of his many research of physiognomy.