A young woman looks past us, behind a stone ledge, with a thin band and jewel across her forehead. That ornament, a ferronnière, gave the painting its name centuries later.

Nobody knows for sure who she was; she may have been a mistress of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, like the Lady with an Ermine. Look at the reddish glow on her cheek, a reflection of her red dress.