‘Leda and the Swan is the most tantalizing of Leanardo’s lost paintings. The existence of multiple copies, including from students in his workshop, makes it seem likely that he actually finished his own version. Lomazzo says that a ‘nude Leda” was one of Leonardo’s few finished paintings and there seems to be report of it in 1625 at the French royal chateau of Fontainebleu, whee a visitor described “a standing figure of Leda almost totally naked, with the swan at her side and two eggs, from whose broken shells come forth four babies.” That sounds like Leonardo’s purported painting, except that Leda, in both his own surviving preparatory drawings and in painted copies, was wholly naked. One tale, which is so delicious that it’s a shame it’s probably untrue, is that it was destroyed by Madame de Maintenon, the mistress and secret second wife of Louis XIV, because she found it too salacious.
The myth of Leda and the swan tells how the Greek god Zeus assumed the form of a swan and seduced the beautiful mortal princess Leda. she produced two eggs, from which hatched two sets of twins Helen (later known as Hele of Troy) and Clytemnestra, the Creator and Pollux. Leonardo’s depiction focuses more on fertility than sex, instead of pianting the seduction scene, as other had done, he chose to portray the moment of the births, showing Leda caressing the swan as the four children sequim from their shells. . . . . Page 326
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Dinesh said:
The myth of Leda and the swan tells how the Greek god Zeus assumed the form of a swan and seduced the beautiful mortal princess Leda. she produced two eggs, from which hatched two sets of twins Helen (later known as Hele of Troy) and Clytemnestra, the Creator and Pollux. Leonardo’s depiction focuses more on fertility than sex, instead of pianting the seduction scene, as other had done, he chose to portray the moment of the births, showing Leda caressing the swan as the four children sequim from their shells. . . . . Page 326
Dinesh said: