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La Belle Ferronnière meme template

Leonardo da Vinci · c. 1490–1496

La Belle Ferronnière face swap

A Milanese woman named after somebody else’s mistake, looking sharply past your shoulder.

La Belle Ferronnière, as painted La Belle Ferronnière with a different face swapped into it
An example: another painting's face. Yours goes on the right.

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Under 15 seconds · no sign-up · your selfie is never stored

How it works

  1. Take a photo

    Front camera, decent light, look straight ahead. Or pick one you already have.

  2. We paint you in

    Your face goes into the painting, keeping its light and its brushwork. About fifteen seconds.

  3. Share the link

    You get a page anyone can open. No account, nothing to install.

Where this one comes from

Painted in Milan in the 1490s, while Leonardo was working for Ludovico Sforza, and most likely showing Lucrezia Crivelli, one of the duke’s mistresses. The name is an eighteenth-century blunder: a French cataloguer confused the picture with a portrait of a mistress of Francis I who was married to an ironmonger, a ferronnier, and the wrong title stuck so hard it is now the official one. It is in the Louvre.

What is in the picture

She is turned towards you and her eyes are not: they go off to her left, past your shoulder, at something the picture does not show. A thin chain crosses her forehead with a small jewel at the centre, which is the band the misapplied title refers to. A stone parapet cuts across the bottom, putting a physical barrier between her and the viewer, and behind her is flat black. The red sleeve is tied at the shoulder with ribbon and painted in more detail than the wall.

When people use it

For noticing something just out of frame and deciding not to mention it. It suits a group photo where one person has spotted the problem, and any caption about not saying what you are thinking.

How your face lands in it

A three-quarter head against a dark ground, lit softly and evenly from the front, with the hair pulled back tight and a band across the forehead. That band frames the swap nicely and stays put. The averted gaze is the painting’s, not yours — whatever direction your own eyes point in the photograph, the result looks past the camera.

La Belle Ferronnière — Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1490–1496. Leonardo da Vinci died in 1519 and the painting has been in the public domain for centuries; the photograph of it was released under the CC0 public domain dedication. Source

Also in: Paintings · Renaissance

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Questions

Who is she supposed to be?

Most probably Lucrezia Crivelli, a mistress of Ludovico Sforza at the Milanese court. Beatrice d’Este, Sforza’s wife, has also been proposed, and neither identification is settled.

Where does the odd name come from?

From a mix-up in a French royal inventory. The picture was confused with a portrait of the wife of an ironmonger — a ferronnière — said to have been a mistress of Francis I, and the wrong name outlived the correction.

Is it definitely by Leonardo?

The Louvre gives it to him and most specialists agree, though some have argued for a pupil working closely under his direction. Attribution arguments around his circle are normal and rarely conclusive.

Is it free?

Yes. There is a limit on how many you can make in a day, and sharing one earns the allowance back.

Do you keep my photo?

No. Your selfie is used to make the image and then dropped — it is never written to disk. The finished meme is stored, because it has a link people can open, and it is deleted after 90 days.

Can I use someone else’s face?

Please do not. Use your own. Putting a real person into a picture they did not agree to is exactly the thing this is not for.

Can I post the result?

Yes, anywhere you like. The paintings are public domain; what you make with your own face is yours.