Leda and the Swan
Leda and the Swan is a story and subject in art from Greek mythology in which the god Zeus, in the form of a swan, seduces or rapes Leda. 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. In the W. B. Yeats version, it is subtly suggested that Clytemnestra, although being the daughter of Tyndareus, has somehow been traumatized by what the swan has done to her mother (see below). According to many versions of the story, 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.
The subject was rarely seen in the large-scale sculpture of antiquity, although a representation of Leda in sculpture has been attributed in modern times to Timotheos (compare illustration, below left); small-scale sculptures survive showing both reclining and standing poses, in cameos and engraved gems, rings, and terracotta oil lamps. Thanks to the literary renditions of Ovid and Fulgentius it was a well-known myth through the Middle Ages, but emerged more prominently as a classicizing theme, with erotic overtones, in the Italian Renaissance.
Leda and the Swan (Peter Paul Rubens)
Peter Paul Rubens was a well known artist during the Baroque era. He completed hundreds of works in various mediums—many were famous at the time and still are today. But there are also many works of art that people don’t know much about. One of these works is his painting Leda and the Swan. He painted two versions of this subject. The first was completed in 1601 and the second was completed in 1602.
Rubens was heavily influenced by Michelangelo. He was introduced to his work on his journey to Italy. Rubens decided to go to Rome to make copies of paintings and further his studies of Italian art from the leading Italian artists of the previous century, later termed the Renaissance. In Rome, he encountered Michelangelo’s version of Leda and the Swan. Even though Michelangelo’s version does not exist today, copies of it do. A copy of Michelangelo’s original work was done by Rubens. Rubens would have been familiar with Michelangelo’s Leda. His version is considered a prototype for Rubens’s two works. Rubens’s 1601 Leda, was modeled after Michelangelo’s Leda. The placement of the body is very similar as is its twisting posture. Even the positioning of the fingers is mirrored. The swan is caressing the female in exactly the same way.
Leda and the Swan (disambiguation)
Leda and the Swan is a classical myth.
Leda and the Swan may also refer to:
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