Carla Glori 
I moti mentali e la biografia di Ginevra [PDF ebook] 

In this research Ginevra’s ‘moti mentali’ (mental motions) are reflected and the figure of a woman oppressed by male power emerges, but at the same time rebellious and bearer of instances of justice against the patriarchal tradition that subordinates women and appropriates their bodies. This study focuses on Ginevra Benci’s mental aspects in depth psychology emerging in the light of contemporary psychoanalytic theories and in particular: (a) The theme of the shadow in Leonardo’s pictorial research and a parallel with some concepts of psychoanalysis; (b) Ginevra’s unconscious and her visionary pictorial projection; (c) The woman’s unconscious mirrored by Leonardo in the background landscape, with anticipations of contemporary art forms.
The unsolved enigma of Ginevra’s ‘severed hands’ also includes a reference to the study on the MET’s ‘Portrait of a Lady’ attributed to Lorenzo di Credi and the virtual reconstruction of the missing hands. The description of fifty perfect Latin anagrams generated by the inscription VIRTUTEM FORMA DECORAT and all marked VINCI, reveals a mysterious link between the Latin motto of the cartouche and the history and destiny of Ginevra Benci