Bookings have opened at the National Gallery in London for an exhibition ‘Leonardo da Vinci, Painter at the Court of Milan’, which opens on 9 November with the gallery expecting an unprecedented interest.

Up to 280, 000 tickets offered for sale and the National writes on its website that advance booking is strongly recommended.

According to art critics, the exhibition is likely to be the biggest event since the foundation of the National Gallery 187 years ago.

Among the ‘sensational international loans never before seen in the UK’ is Lady with an Ermine from the Czartoryski collection in Kraków. Poland’s art conservator gave his go-ahead for the painting’s travel to London after weeks of debate involving experts and members of the Czartoryski Foundation, which is the owner of the work.

It was agreed that before the London exhibition, Lady with an Ermine will be shown in Madrid and Berlin, but after returning from the National Gallery in February 2012 it will remain in Kraków for at least ten years.

Lady with an Ermine is one of Leonardo da Vinci’s four extant female portraits. It depicts Cecilia Gallerani, a young lady who entered the Milanese court around 1490 and became a mistress of the Duke Lodovico Sforza and the mother of his son. It was the Duke who commissioned Leonardo to paint the portrait. (mk)