Leda and the Swan is a motif from
Greek mythologyGreek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
, in which
ZeusIn Greek mythology, Zeus is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus and the god of the sky and thunder. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak. In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical "cloud-gatherer" also derives certain iconographic traits from the...
came to
LedaIn Greek mythology, Leda was daughter of the Aetolian king Thestius, and wife of the king Tyndareus, of Sparta. Her myth gave rise to the popular motif in Renaissance and later art of Leda and the Swan. She was the mother of Helen of Troy, Clytemnestra, and Castor and Pollux.Leda was admired by...
in the form of a
swanSwans, genus Cygnus, are birds of the family Anatidae, which also includes geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Sometimes, they are considered a distinct subfamily, Cygninae...
. According to later Greek mythology, Leda bore
HelenIn Greek mythology, Helen , known as Helen of Troy , was the daughter of Zeus and Leda , wife of King Menelaus of Sparta and sister of Castor, Polydeuces and Clytemnestra. Her abduction by Paris brought about the Trojan War...
and Polydeuces, children of Zeus while at the same time bearing Castor and
ClytemnestraClytemnestra is the traditional, but mistaken, English form for what is properly "Clytaemestra". "Her name in Greek is Klutaiméstra . . . the form with μν first appeared in the middle Byzantine period . . . and is due to a false etymological connection with μναoμαι 'woo, court'. Aeschylus . ....
, children of her husband
TyndareusIn Greek mythology, Tyndareus or Tyndareos was a Spartan king, son of Oebalus and Gorgophone , husband of Leda and father of Helen, Castor and Polydeuces, Clytemnestra, Timandra, Phoebe and Philonoe.Tyndareus had a brother named Hippocoon, who seized power and exiled Tyndareus...
, the King of
SpartaSparta was a city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the River Eurotas in the southern part of the Peloponnese. From c. 650 BC it rose to become the dominant military power in the region and as such was recognized as the overall leader of the combined Greek forces during the Greco-Persian Wars...
. 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
TyndareusIn Greek mythology, Tyndareus or Tyndareos was a Spartan king, son of Oebalus and Gorgophone , husband of Leda and father of Helen, Castor and Polydeuces, Clytemnestra, Timandra, Phoebe and Philonoe.Tyndareus had a brother named Hippocoon, who seized power and exiled Tyndareus...
. In some versions, she laid two eggs from which the children hatched. In other versions, Helen is a daughter of
NemesisIn Greek mythology, Nemesis , also called Rhamnousia/Rhamnusia at her sanctuary at Rhamnous north of Marathon, was the spirit of divine retribution against those who succumb to hubris, vengeful fate personified as a remorseless goddess. The name Nemesis is related to the Greek word νέμειν, meaning...
, the goddess who personified the disaster that awaited those suffering from the pride of
HubrisHubris is a term used in modern English to indicate overweening pride, haughtiness, or arrogance, often resulting in fatal retribution or Nemesis. In ancient Greece, hubris referred to actions which, intentionally or not, shamed and humiliated the victim, and frequently the perpetrator as well...
.
The motif was rarely seen in the large-scale sculpture of antiquity, although
TimotheosTimotheus was a Greek sculptor of the 4th century BC, one of the rivals and contemporaries of Scopas of Paros, among the sculptors who worked for their own fame on the construction of the grave of Mausolus at Halicarnassus between 353 and 350 BC. He was apparently the leading sculptor at the...
is known to have represented Leda in sculpture (
compare illustration, below left); small-scale examples survive showing both reclining and standing poses, in cameos and engraved gems, rings, and terracotta oil lamps. Thanks to the literary renditions of
OvidPublius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who wrote about love, seduction, and mythological transformation....
and
FulgentiusFabius Planciades Fulgentius was a late-antique period writer. Four extant works are commonly attributed to him, as well as a possible fifth which some scholars include in compilations with much reservation...
it was a well-known myth through the Middle Ages, but emerged more prominently as a classicizing theme, with
erotic overtonesErotic art covers any artistic work that is intended to evoke erotic arousal or that depicts scenes of love-making. It includes paintings, sculptures, photographs, music and writing.-Definition:...
, in the Italian Renaissance. Many artists have their own representative paintings of 'Leda and the Swan'; with the support of Greek mythology.
Eroticism
The subject undoubtedly owed its sixteenth-century 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. The fate of the album
I ModiI Modi also known as The Sixteen Pleasures or under the Latin title De omnibus Veneris Schematibus, is a famous, essentially lost erotic book of the Italian Renaissance.-Original edition:...
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 printAn old master print is a work of art produced by a printing process within the Western tradition . A date of about 1830 is usually taken as marking the end of the period whose prints are covered by this term. The main techniques concerned are woodcut, engraving and etching, although there are others...
, and mostly from Venice. They were often based on the extremely brief account in the
Metamorphoses of
OvidPublius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who wrote about love, seduction, and mythological transformation....
(who does not imply a rape), though
Lorenzo de' MediciLorenzo de' Medici was an Italian statesman and de facto ruler of the Florentine Republic during the Italian Renaissance. Known as Lorenzo the Magnificent by contemporary Florentines, he was a diplomat, politician and patron of scholars, artists, and poets...
had both a Roman sarcophagus and an antique carved gem of the subject, both with reclining Ledas.
The earliest known explicit Renaissance depiction is one of the many
woodcutWoodcut — formally known as xylography — is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges...
illustrations to
Hypnerotomachia PoliphiliHypnerotomachia Poliphili is a romance by Francesco Colonna and a famous example of early printing...
, a book published in
VeniceVenice is a city in northern Italy, the capital of the region Veneto, a population of 271,367 . Together with Padua, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area . The city historically was an independent nation...
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. An engraving dating to 1503 at the latest, by Giovanni Battista Palumba, also shows the couple in coitus, but in deserted countryside. Another engraving, certainly from Venice and attributed by many to
Giulio CampagnolaGiulio Campagnola was an Italian engraver and painter, whose few, rare prints translated the rich Venetian Renaissance style of oil paintings of Giorgione and the early Titian into the medium of engraving; to further his exercises in gradations of tone, he also invented the stipple technique...
, shows a love-making scene, but there Leda's attitude is highly ambiguous. 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.
There were also significant depictions in the smaller decorative arts, also private media.
Benvenuto CelliniBenvenuto Cellini was an Italian goldsmith, painter, sculptor, soldier and musician of the Renaissance, who also wrote a famous autobiography.-Youth:...
made a medallion, now in Vienna, early in his career, and
Antonio AbondioAntonio Abondio was an Italian sculptor, best known as a medallist and as the pioneer of the coloured wax relief portrait miniature.Born in Riva del Garda, he worked in Italy between 1552 and 1565, and thereafter mainly for the Habsburgs...
one on the obverse of a medal celebrating a Roman
courtesanA courtesan was originally a woman courtier, which means a person who attends the court of a monarch or other powerful person. In feudal society, the court was the centre of government as well as the residence of the monarch, and social and political life were often completely mixed together...
.
In painting
Leonardo da VinciLeonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian polymath, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer....
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
MichelangeloMichelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer...
's tempera painting of the pair making love, commissioned in 1529 by Alfonso d'Este for his palazzo in
FerraraFerrara is a city in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital city of the Province of Ferrara.It is situated 50 km north-northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream of the Po River, located 5 km north. The town has broad streets and numerous palaces...
. Michelangelo's
cartoonThe word cartoon has various meanings, based on several very different forms of visual art and illustration. The term has evolved over time....
for the work— given to his assistant Antonio Mini, who used it for several copies for French patrons before his death in 1533— survived for over a century. This composition is known from many copies, including an engraving by Cornelis de Bos,
c. 1563; the marble sculpture by
Bartolomeo AmmanatiBartolomeo Ammanati was a Florentine architect and sculptor, born at Settignano, near Florence. He studied under Baccio Bandinelli and Jacopo Sansovino and closely imitated the style of Michelangelo.He was more distinguished in architecture than in sculpture...
in the Bargello, Florence; two copies by the young
RubensSir Peter Paul Rubens was a prolific seventeenth-century Flemish Baroque painter, and a proponent of an exuberant Baroque style that emphasized movement, color, and sensuality...
on his Italian voyage, and the painting after Michelangelo, ca. 1530, in the
National Gallery, LondonThe National Gallery in London, founded in 1824, houses a rich collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900 in its home on Trafalgar Square...
. The Michelangelo composition, of about 1530, shows
ManneristMannerism is a period of European art that emerged from the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520. It lasted until about 1580 in Italy, when a more Baroque style began to replace it, but Northern Mannerism continued into the early 17th century throughout much of Europe...
tendencies of elongation and twisted pose (the
figura serpentinata) that were popular at the time. In addition, a sculptural group, similar to the Prado Roman group illustrated, was believed until at least the 19th century to be by Michelangelo.
The last very famous Renaissance painting of the subject is
CorreggioAntonio Allegri da Correggio, usually known simply as Correggio, was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the Italian Renaissance, who was responsible for some of the most vigorous and sensuous works of the 16th century...
's elaborate composition of
c. 1530 (Berlin); this too was damaged whilst in the collection of
Philippe II, Duke of OrléansPhilippe Charles d'Orléans, petit-fils de France, Duke of Orléans , was a member of the royal family of France and served as Regent of the Kingdom from 1715 to 1723. Born at his father's palace at Saint-Cloud, he was known from birth under the title of Duke of Chartres...
, the Regent of France in the minority of Louis XV. His son
LouisLouis d'Orléans, Duke of Orléans was a member of the royal family of France, the House of Bourbon, and as such was a Prince du Sang. At his father's death, he became the First Prince of the Blood...
though a great lover of painting, 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.
There were many other depictions in the Renaissance, including cycles of book illustrations to Ovid, but most were derivative of the compositions mentioned above. The subject remained largely confined to Italy, and sometimes France – Northern versions are rare. After something of a hiatus in the 18th and early 19th centuries (apart from a very sensuous
BoucherFrançois Boucher was a French painter, a proponent of Rococo taste, known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories representing the arts or pastoral occupations, intended as a sort of two-dimensional furniture...
,), Leda and the Swan became again a popular motif in the later 19th and 20th centuries, with many Symbolist and Expressionist treatments.
In Modern Art
Cy TwomblyEdwin Parker Twombly Jr. is an American artist well known for his large-scale, freely scribbled, calligraphic-style graffiti paintings, on solid fields of mostly gray, tan, or off-white colors. He exhibits his paintings worldwide....
executed an abstract version of Leda and the Swan in 1962. It is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Avant-garde filmmaker Kurt Kren along with other members of the Vienna Actionist movement including
Otto MuehlOtto Muehl is an Austrian artist and was well known for being one of the co-founders as well as a main participant of Viennese Actionism. In 1972 he founded the famous commune Friedrichshof that flourished for several years before falling apart in the 1990s...
and
Hermann NitschHermann Nitsch is an Austrian artist who works in experimental and multimedia modes.Born in Vienna, Nitsch received training in painting during the time he studied at the Wiener Graphische Lehr-und Versuchanstalt. He is called an "actionist" or a performance artist...
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.
Photographer Charlie White included a portrait of Leda in his "And Jeopardize the Integrity of the Hull" series. Zeus, as the swan, only appears metaphorically.
There is a life-sized marble statue of Leda and the Swan at the Jai Vilas Palace Museum in
GwaliorGwalior , is a city in Madhya Pradesh in India. It lies 76 miles south of Agra and has a population of over 1.2 million. Gwalior was the Capital City of Great Maratha Sardar & Warrior Maharaja Shrimant Madhavraoji Shinde - Sawstant Gwalior...
, Northern
Madhya PradeshMadhya Pradesh , often called the Heart of India, is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal. Madhya Pradesh was originally the largest state in India until November 1, 2000 when the state of Chhattisgarh was carved out...
, India.
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 vagina.
"Leda and the Swan" is a poem by
William Butler YeatsWilliam Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and dramatist and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years Yeats served as an Irish Senator for two terms...
first published in
1928Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature .-Events:* Russian poets Daniil Kharms and Alexander Vvedensky found OBERIU , an avant-garde grouping of Russian post-Futurist poets in the 1920s-1930s* American poets Charles Reznikoff, George Oppen and Louis...
(below). Combining psychological realism with a mystic vision, it describes the swan's raping of
LedaIn Greek mythology, Leda was daughter of the Aetolian king Thestius, and wife of the king Tyndareus, of Sparta. Her myth gave rise to the popular motif in Renaissance and later art of Leda and the Swan. She was the mother of Helen of Troy, Clytemnestra, and Castor and Pollux.Leda was admired by...
.
- 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
- 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?
External links