This chapter examines how the Renaissance portrayed the ermine as both a biological specimen and a symbol of purity, referencing Leonardo da Vinci’s Lady with an Ermine, anatomical studies, and Edmund Spenser’s allegories. It shows how art and science romanticized animal suffering. The analysis traces the ermine’s dual role in Renaissance naturalism, functioning as at once a symbol of purity in portraiture and an anatomical specimen. The chapter also discusses the colonial and gendered labor involved in the fur trade, highlighting the tension between symbolic elevation and material erasure. Through Leonardo’s sfumato technique and Spenser’s allegorical poetry, the chapter demonstrates how artistic techniques and scientific observation collaborated to create the “Renaissance biomachine”—a system that beautifies animal bodies while extracting knowledge from their deaths.