“Leda And The Swan”, by Leonardo da Vinci, is one of history’s great art losses. From the surviving copies we can see its beauty, the masterly composition, and the complex emblematic symbolism. Leonardo went beyond the sexual act portrayed until then about this mythic story. The great popularity of this subject n the sixteenth century was due to the fact that it was then more acceptable to depict a woman having an act of copulation with an animal than with a man.

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Leonardo da Vinci’s Masterpiece
“Leda And The Swan”
Leonardo wasn’t a prolific painter. Because he believed that the original idea was
the most important element in any artistic, creative process, he often only did the
drawing studies, notes, or a detailed cartoon, and that not too often, of what his
mind was feverishly creating. The completion of the work in question, be it a
machine, a weapon, an ornament, a monument, or a painting, wasn’t his prime
concern. And that put a lot of people off, as was the case with Pope Leo X, his
reluctant patron from 1515 to 1516, who could hardly stand Leonardo’s sight. The
Pope once remarked on this particular behavior of Leonardo to a Cardinal: “The
man is useless, he never finished a small commission I gave him last year and he is
already daydreaming something else. He expects me to give him the commission to
complete Bramante’s work on Saint Peter’s Square and the Basilica, can you
believe it?”
“Leda And The Swan” by Leonardo da
Vinci, also called ‘the lost painting’, is
one of history’s great art losses. All the
period documents, sketches, and copies
of the painting are unanimous about its
beauty, the masterly composition, the
complex emblematic symbolism, and the
impressive dimensions of the piece,
which would have been around two and
a half meters high by two meters wide. It
was Leonardo’s biggest and most
important piece to date. He started it
around 1503, after he had fled Cesare
Borgia and gone back to Florence. It
was copied by most of the Florentine
painters of that time and even
Michelangelo did his own version of the
subject around 1525.
The mythic story was still alive and well,
and reemerged prominently with erotic
overtones in the Middle Ages, thanks to
the literary renditions of Ovid and others
Ancient Greek writers.
Most of the earliest depictions show
Leda quite explicitly copulating with
“Leda And The Swan” by Francesco Melzi, copied Zeus, disguised as a Swan. No human
from Leonardo’s original, ca. 1508-1515. Oil and couple had ever been portrayed by any
resin on wood, 130 x 77.5 cm. Galleria degli Uffizi,
master artist of the same period in the
Florence, Italy. Leda remains an extreme
example of Leonardo's love of twisting forms. same way.
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The great popularity of this subject in the sixteenth century was due to a fact that it
was then more acceptable to depict a woman having an act of copulation with an
animal than with a man.
Also lost, is Michelangelo's
painting of the pair making
love, commissioned in 1529
by Alfonso d'Este. (On the
left) It was last seen in 1536
at Fontainebleau.
Michelangelo gave this
painting’s original cartoon to
his assistant, Antonio Mini,
who used it for several
copies before his early death
in 1533.
From the Greek mythology comes the story of Leda and the Swan. In the legend,
Zeus, the omnipotent Olympus god, in the form of a swan, seduced Leda on the
night of her wedding to Tyndareus, King of Sparta.
From this double liaison, Queen Leda bore two eggs, from which hatched two sets
of twins. In one egg was Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra, and in the other, Castor
and Pollux. The other version of the same legend, says that from these encounters
Leda bore four children. First she laid two eggs. In one egg was Helen and in the
other was Castor, sired by Zeus, half gods themselves. Afterwards, by natural
childbirth and therefore human, she gave birth to Clytemnestra and Pollux, fathered
by Tyndareus.
On the left is a sketch of Leonardo’s
studies for Leda’s head.
On the right is Raphael’s drawing, coped
from Leonardo’s original Leda. The high
full breasts are the center of a sequence of
curves moving freely in space. These
twisting curves contrast with the
unobstructed, frontal axis of the hips,
showing Leonardo’s love of his
contrapposto composition. (When a figure
stands with one leg holding its full weight
and the other leg relaxed) Known only to
Leonardo, each line has its own enigmatic
significance. Both drawings are now at the
British Royal Library, Windsor, which
possesses over 600 of Leonardo’s
drawings.
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Leonardo went beyond the sexual intercourse. To him, this legend and connection,
symbolizes the union of man and god, matter and spirit, as well as man and nature.
He exemplifies this fecund union not only by the children, just hatched from their
eggs, but by the abundant seeding plants and flowers that surrounds the couple.
The columbine blossom on Leda’s left hand means that she is in her fertile cycle,
symbolizing the rebirth of nature in the spring. Zeus Celebrated the birth of his
children by creating in the sky, for Helen, the constellation of the Cygnus, the Swan,
also known as the Northern Cross, and for Castor, and his mortal brother, he
created Gemini.
Lomazzo, a sixteenth century writer,
reports that Leonardo’s “Leda And The
Swan”, was taken to France. Cassiano
de Pozzo, an Italian scholar, patron of
arts, and antiquary, saw the painting at
Fontainebleau in 1625. He describes it
in full detail: "a standing figure of Leda
entirely naked, with the swan. At her
feet, two eggs, from whose broken
shells come forth four babies. This
piece, though somewhat dry in style, is
exquisitely finished, especially in the
woman's breast; and for the rest the
landscape and the plant life are
rendered with the greatest diligence.
Unfortunately, the picture is in a bad
way because it is done on three long
panels which have split apart and
broken off a certain amount of paint".
The Venetian playwright and librettist,
Carlo Osvaldo Goldoni, visited
Versailles in 1775, and couldn’t find Cesare Sesto, ca. 1505-1510 copy of Leonardo’s
any trace of Leonardo’s painting. He ‘Leda And The Swan” He changed the background,
adds on his journal that he didn’t find adding his own personal touch, which was a normal
Leonardo’s “Leda” even in the list of the procedure then, but the rest is the same as the
palace’s pictures considered obscene original.
and ordered destroyed by the vicious, self-righteous and most hated court royalty of
the time, the secretly married, wife of King Louis XIV, Madame de Maintenon.
Four hundred years later Leonardo’s work was still inspiring artists and back on the
social limelight. In 1949, after the bombardment of Hiroshima, a young Salvador
Dali, paid homage to Leonardo by unveiling his version of a Leda in the twentieth
century. Dali’s “Leda Atomica”, a 61.1 x 45.3 cm, oil on canvas, was organized
according to a rigid mathematical framework, following the "divine proportion"
recommended to him by Romanian Mathematician Matila Ghyka.
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Leda and the swan are set in a pentagon inside which has been inserted a five-
point star. The five points of the star symbolize the seeds of perfection: love, order,
truth, willpower and action.
Here, Leonardo’s symbolic message
takes full effect. Matter and spirit
coexist in harmony despite their
opposing constitution. Neither Leda
nor the Swan touch each other, nor
does any object portrayed, as atomic
particles never physically touch. Leda
seems to levitate; everything is in
suspended animation, even the water
above the shore.
This is how Dali described his
“Atomica Leda” himself: "Dali shows us
the hierarchized libidinous emotion,
suspended and as though hanging in
midair, in accordance with the modern
'nothing touches' theory of intra-atomic
physics. Leda does not touch the
swan; Leda does not touch the
pedestal; the pedestal does not touch
the base; the base does not touch the
sea; the sea does not touch the
shore…”
Now days, the story of Leda and the swan, is almost forgotten and unknown by the
general public. Last month a couple of seemingly unskilled, and utterly righteous
cops raided a gallery in London, England, for having a picture of “Leda And The
Swan” on the window. The law enforcement officers claimed that the Gallery was
promoting sexual aberrations and practice of bestiality. The owners were ordered to
take the picture down immediately, or else… They took it out.
Is Leonardo’s masterpiece going to show up some day? One never knows but I
hope so… if we can keep these cops away.
Ton Pascal
Ton Pascal is a writer, designer of all things and artist. He also loves history and is
an avid reader, so it is very natural that his latest book is a time leap into the 16th
century. LEONARDO THE LAST YEARS starts in 1516 and spans three and a half
years of Leonardo da Vinci’s life.
Book’s Web site: http://www.leonardo-tly.com/
Book on Amazon.com http://amzn.to/HhNUKN
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