Leda and the Swan

copy after a lost original by Michelangelo, after 1530

Oil on canvas

105.4 × 141 cm

National Gallery, London

Leda and the Swan is a motif from Greek mythology, in which Zeus came to Leda in the form of a swan. According to later Greek mythology, Leda bore Helen and Polydeuces, children of Zeus while at the same time bearing Castor and Clytemnestra, children of her husband Tyndareus, the King of Sparta. As the story goes, Zeus took the form of a swan and raped or seduced Leda on the same night she slept with her husband, King Tyndareus. In some versions, she laid two eggs from which the children hatched. In other versions, Helen is a daughter of Nemesis, the goddess who personified the disaster that awaited those suffering from the pride of Hubris. Image File history File links Leda. ... Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (March 6, 1475 – February 18, 1564), commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet and engineer. ... June 25 - Augsburg confession presented to Charles V of Holy Roman Empire. ... Mona Lisa, Oil on wood panel painting by Leonardo da Vinci. ... The National Gallery from Trafalgar Square The National Gallery is an art gallery in London, located on the north side of Trafalgar Square. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... Look up motif in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The bust of Zeus found at Otricoli (Sala Rotonda, Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican) Greek mythology is the telling of stories created by the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world and their own cult and ritual practices. ... The Statue of Zeus at Olympia Phidias created the 12-m (40-ft) tall statue of Zeus at Olympia about 435 BC. The statue was perhaps the most famous sculpture in Ancient Greece, imagined here in a 16th century engraving Zeus (in Greek: nominative: Zeús, genitive: Diós), is... In Greek mythology, Leda was a Spartan queen, wife of Tyndareus and mother of the double sets of mixed twins, Castor and Polydeuces and Clytemnestra and Helen, as well as Phoebe and Philonoe. ... Species 6-7 living, see text. ... In Greek mythology, Helen (Greek: , Helénē), better known as Helen of Troy, was the daughter of Zeus and Leda and the wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta. ... In Greek mythology, Castor (or Kastor) and Polydeuces (sometimes called Pollux) were the twin sons of Leda and the brothers of Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra. ... In Greek mythology, Castor (or Kastor) and Polydeuces (sometimes called Pollux) were the twin sons of Leda and the brothers of Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra. ... Clytemnestra (Eng. ... In Greek mythology, Tyndareus (or Tyndareos) was a Spartan king, son of Oebalus (or Perieres) and Gorgophone (or Bateia), husband of Leda and father of Helen, Polydeuces (Pollux), Castor, Clytemnestra, Timandra, Phoebe and Philonoe. ... Sparta (Doric: Spártā, Attic: Spártē) is a city in southern Greece. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ...

The motif was rarely seen in the art of antiquity, although Timotheos is known to have represented Leda in sculpture and small-scale examples survive showing both reclining and standing poses,^[1] but emerged as a classicizing theme, with erotic overtones, in the Italian Renaissance. Roman marble of Leda and the Swan (Prado) Timotheos was a Greek sculptor of the fourth century BCE, one of the rivals and contemporaries of Skopas, among the sculptors who worked for their own fame on the Mausoleum of Maussollos at Halicarnassus during the 350s. ... By todays standards Fragonards The Swing is rather tame, but in the 18th century this painting of a young lady being in a position where a man can look up her skirts was considered highly erotic. ...

Leda and the Swan, Roman marble, restored (Prado)

Image File history File links Size of this preview: 359 × 600 pixels Full resolution (1159 × 1937 pixel, file size: 1. ... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 359 × 600 pixels Full resolution (1159 × 1937 pixel, file size: 1. ... Prado may refer to: Land Cruiser Prado, a 4WD vehicle from Toyota Museo del Prado, an art gallery in Madrid Prado, Spain, a village in Castile-Leon the prado dam Prado River Miguelanxo Prado, a spanish comic book artist Ed Prado, a U.S. appeals court judge PRADO, a PHP...

Eroticism

The subject undoubtedly owed its popularity to the paradox that it was considered more acceptable to depict a woman in the act of copulation with a swan than with a man. The earliest depictions show the pair love-making with some explicitness - more so than in any depictions of a human pair made by artists of high quality in the same period.^[2] The fate of the album I Modi some years later shows why this was. The theme remained a dangerous one in the Renaissance, as the fates of the three best known paintings on the subject demonstrate. The earliest depictions were all in the more private medium of the old master print, and mostly from Venice. They were often based on the extremely brief account in the Metamorphoses of Ovid (who does not imply a rape), though Lorenzo de' Medici had both a Roman sarcophagus and an antique carved gem of the subject, both with reclining Ledas. ^[3] I Modi (The Ways, also known as The 16 Pleasures) is a famous, essentially lost erotic book of the Italian Renaissance. ... The term Old Master Print is used to describe works of art produced by a printing process within the Western tradition (European or New World). ... Engraved frontispiece of George Sandyss 1632 London edition of Publius Ovidius Naso (Sulmona, March 20, 43 BC – Tomis, now Constanţa AD 17), a Roman poet known to the English-speaking world as Ovid, wrote on topics of love, abandoned women and mythological transformations. ... Lorenzo de Medici. ...

The earliest known explicit Renaissance depiction is one of the many beautiful woodcut illustations to Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, a book published in Venice in 1499. This shows Leda and the Swan making love with gusto, despite being on top of a triumphal car, being pulled along and surrounded by a considerable crowd.[1] An engraving dating to 1503 at the latest, by Giovanni Battista Palumba, also shows the couple in coitus, but in a deserted countryside. Another engraving, certainly from Venice and attributed by many to Giulio Campagnola, shows a love-making scene, but here Leda's attitude is highly ambiguous.[2]^[4] Palumba made another engraving in about 1512, presumably influenced by Leonardo's sketches for his earlier composition, showing Leda seated on the ground and playing with her children.[3] Four horsemen of the Apocalypse by Albrecht Dürer. ... It has been suggested that Poliphilo be merged into this article or section. ... Venice (Italian: Venezia, Venetian: Venezsia) is the capital of region Veneto, and has a population of 271,663 (census estimate January 1, 2004). ... Giulio Campagnola (born Padua c. ...

In painting

Leda and the Swan, copy by Cesare Sesto after a lost original by Leonardo, 1515-1520, Oil on canvas, Wilton House, England

Leonardo da Vinci began making studies in 1504 for a painting, apparently never executed, of Leda seated on the ground with her children. In 1508 he painted a different composition of the subject, with a nude standing Leda cuddling the Swan, with the two sets of infant twins, and their huge broken egg-shells. The original of this is lost, probably deliberately destroyed, but it is known from many copies. Also lost, and probably deliberately destroyed, is Michelangelo's oil painting of the pair making love. This too is known from many copies, including an engraving by Cornelis de Bos, c. 1563; the marble sculpture by Bartolomeo Ammanati in the Bargello, Florence; and the painting after Michelangelo, c. 1530, in the National Gallery, London. The Michelangelo composition, of about 1530, is a definitive example of Mannerism. Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (531x696, 82 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Leda and the Swan User:Markaci/Nudity User:Hopiakuta/ ¡¿ &image ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (531x696, 82 KB) File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Leda and the Swan User:Markaci/Nudity User:Hopiakuta/ ¡¿ &image ... The Mona Lisa Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519) was an Italian polymath: scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, musician, and writer. ... 1515 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... mary elline m. ... Jones and de Causs South Front and the Palladian Bridge (1736/7), in a view of circa 1820 Wilton House is an English country house situated at Wilton near Salisbury in Wiltshire. ... The Mona Lisa Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519) was an Italian polymath: scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, musician, and writer. ... Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (March 6, 1475 – February 18, 1564), commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet and engineer. ... Bartolomeo Ammanati (1511-1592) was a Florentine architect and sculptor. ... The National Gallery from Trafalgar Square The National Gallery is an art gallery in London, located on the north side of Trafalgar Square. ... In Parmigianinos Madonna with the Long Neck (1534-40), Mannerism makes itself known by elongated proportions, affected poses, and unclear perspective. ...

The last very famous Renaissance painting of the subject is Correggio's elaborate composition of c. 1530 (Berlin); this too was damaged whilst in the collection of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, the Regent of France in the minority of Louis XV. Though both extremely dissolute and a great lover of painting, he had periodic crises of conscience about his way of life, in one of which he attacked the figure of Leda with a knife. The damage has been repaired, though full restoration to the original condition was not possible. Both the Leonardo and Michelangelo paintings also disappeared when in the collection of the French Royal Family, and are believed to have been destroyed by more moralistic widows or successors of their owners.^[5] Antonio Allegri da Correggio Jupiter and Io, 1531 or 32 Antonio Allegri da Correggio (Correggio, Italy August 1489 – March 5, 1534) was an Italian painter of the Renaissance. ... Philippe of Orléans Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, Philippe Charles (August 2, 1674 – December 2, 1723) called Duke of Chartres (1674–1701), and then Duke of Orléans (1701–1723) was Regent of France from 1715 to 1723. ... Louis XV (February 15, 1710 – May 10, 1774), called the Well-Beloved (French: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1715 to 1774. ...

There were many other depictions in the Renaissance, including cycles of book illustations to Ovid, but most were derivative of the compositions mentioned above.[4] The subject remained largely confined to Italy, and sometimes France - Northern versions are rare. ^[6] After something of a a hiatus in the 18th and early 19th centuries (apart from a very ripe Boucher [5]), Leda and the Swan became again a popular motif in the later 19th and 20th centuries, with many Symbolist and Expressionist treatments. The Toilet of Venus (1751) typifies the superficially pleasing elegance of Bouchers mature style. ... This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... On White II by Wassily Kandinsky, 1923. ...

In Contemporary Art

Cy Twombly executed an intense version of Leda and the Swan in 1962. It is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.[6]

Avant-garde filmmaker Kurt Kren along with other members of the Vienna Actionist movement including Otto Muehl and Hermann Nitsch made a film-performance version of Leda and the Swan called 7/64 Leda mit der Schwan in 1964. The film retains the classical motif, portraying, for most of its duration, a young woman embracing a swan.

In poetry

Ronsard wrote a poem on La Défloration de Lède, perhaps inspired by the Michelangelo, which he may well have known. Like many artists, he imagines the beak penetrating Leda's mouth. ^[7] "Leda And The Swan" is a poem by William Butler Yeats first published in 1928 (below). Combining psychological realism with a mystic vision, it describes the swan's rape of Leda. Pierre de Ronsard, commonly referred to as Ronsard (September 11, 1524 - December, 1585), was a French poet and prince of poets (as his own generation in France called him). ... W.B. Yeats in Dublin on 24 January 1908. ... // Russian poets Daniil Kharms and Alexander Vvedensky found OBERIU (a Russian acronym for An Association of Real Art), an avant-garde grouping of Russian post-Futurist poets in the 1920s-1930s T.S. Eliot, For Lancelot Andrewes Robert Frost, West-Running Brook Federico García Lorca, Romancero Gitano Thomas Hardy... In Greek mythology, Leda was a Spartan queen, wife of Tyndareus and mother of the double sets of mixed twins, Castor and Polydeuces and Clytemnestra and Helen, as well as Phoebe and Philonoe. ...

Study for the head of Leda

Leonardo, c. 1506

Pen and ink over black chalk

29.8 × 29 cm

Royal Library, Windsor

A sudden blow: the great wings beating still

Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed

By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,

He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.

How can those terrified vague fingers push

The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?

And how can body, laid in that white rush,

But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?

A shudder in the loins engenders there

The broken wall, the burning roof and tower^[8]

And Agamemnon dead.

Being so caught up,

So mastered by the brute blood of the air,

Did she put on his knowledge with his power

Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?

Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (738x705, 152 KB) Study for the Head of Leda (c. ... Leonardo da Vinci (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519) was an Italian Renaissance architect, musician, anatomist, inventor, engineer, sculptor, geometer, and painter. ... 1506 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... This office, in the Royal Collection Department of the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom, is responsible for the care and maintenance of the royal collection of books and manuscripts owned by the Sovereign in an official capacity - as distinct from those owned privately and displayed at... Windsor (IPA: usually , but also ) is a suburban town and tourist destination in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England. ...

Notes

1. ^ Bull p. 167. See External links for examples
2. ^ Bull p 167
3. ^ Bull p167
4. ^ Not a woodcut, as Bull (p169) wrongly says (see Hind BM catalogue,The Illustrated Bartsch etc); nor is his view of Leda's expression the only one.
5. ^ Bull p169
6. ^ Bull p.170
7. ^ Bull p.169
8. ^ "Was this the face that launched a thousand ships/ And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?" (Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus). Both Helen and Clytemnestra were Leda's daughters.

Bartsch is the German name of the Barycz River in Poland. ... Christopher (Kit) Marlowe (baptised 26 February 1564 – 30 May 1593?) was an English dramatist, poet, and translator of the Elizabethan era. ...

References

• Malcolm Bull, The Mirror of the Gods, How Renaissance Artists Rediscovered the Pagan Gods, Oxford UP, 2005, ISBN 100195219236

External links

• Ovid Illustrated - large site from the University of Virginia, where many depictions of Leda and the Swan from Renaissance and later editions of the Metamorphoses will (eventually) be found.
• Yeats' "Leda and the Swan": an image's coming of age
• Greek vase from the Getty
• Alternative detail view of the Getty vase
• Roman statue from the Getty
• Baroque bronze from the Getty
• English snuff box c.1720
• Sculpture c 1900
• Jupiter+Leda+art