The sitter is generally identified as Lucrezia Crivelli, mistress of Ludovico Sforza from about 1495. The painting takes its name from a type of band worn across the forehead, known as a Ferronière, which was especially popular in Milan at that time.

The painting has been executed on a walnut panel that is thought to have originated from the same tree as the Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani (The Lady with the Ermine). The format of the composition, in which a stone parapet separates the viewer from the sitter whose head and upper body only are visible, was especially popular in Northern Europe and may have originated in paintings by earlier Netherlandish artists such as Van Eyck and Rogier Van der Weyden.

The sitter’s averted glance testifies to Leonardo’s conception, and calls to mind the Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani (The Lady with the Ermine). The painting is in the main finely executed and in good condition, although some of the more routine details may have been painted by assistants.