ferronièren.

Etymology: < French ferronnière ornamental chain, band, or plait with a central decoration, worn around the forehead (1832; compare earlier à la Ferronnière designating an ornament of this kind, lit. ‘in the style of the La Belle Ferronnière’ (1831 or earlier in bandeaux à la Ferronnière, also from the same year in an English context)), apparently < La Belle Ferronnière, the title given from the early 18th cent. to a portrait of a beautiful woman wearing such an ornament.The portrait in question, dated to 1490–6 and now in the Louvre, Paris, has long been attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, but is now thought to originate from his school in Milan; the identity of its subject is uncertain and disputed. The title by which the work came to be known alludes to a supposed mistress of François I of France, said to be the wife of a minister Jean Le Ferron, who reputedly became known as La Belle Ferronnière , lit. ‘the beautiful female ironmonger’ or ‘the beautiful ironmonger's wife’ (1646 or earlier; compare French ferronnière female ironmonger (1332 in Middle French; < ferronnerie ferronnerie n.: see -ière -ier suffix)) in punning allusion to her husband's surname. Although the 1683 catalogue of French royal paintings records a portrait representing ‘La Belle Feronnière’ attributed to Leonardo, this has been shown to be a different work; it appears that the painting now known by this name acquired it through misidentification in early 18th-century catalogues.