Mannerist painter, 16th century Leda and the Swan

Mannerist painter, 16th century

Leda and the Swan

Oil on canvas, 87,5 x 142 cm

Leda, queen of Sparta and wife of Tyndareus, is lying on a sheet with her bust raised by a white pillow. Her figure, which occupies the entire space of the canvas, is gently compared to that of Zeus in the guise of a swan. Following this union, according to the myth, Leda laid an egg from which Helen, Pollux, Castor and Clytemnestra were born. The story should have taken place along the Eurotas river but the background, in the present painting, is a detailed glimpse of a mountain range surrounding a lake, and some buildings. Among these, an aqueduct and the Pyramid of Cestius stand out: a landscape piece of great quality, in essence, especially in the color rendering of the surrounding vegetation and the softly outlined mountains, so much so that it makes one think that the artist studied the works of the master Leonardo. 

The voluminousness of the female figure refers to mannerist styles and it is therefore possible to limit the chronological scope of its creation to the mid-sixteenth century. For the origins of the iconography of the reclining Leda, in antiquity preferred in the standing variant, it is necessary to focus on an engraving by Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), depicting the woman in the company of a sea creature rather than a swan. Cesare Reverdino (second half of the 1530th century) immediately resumed this work, this time placing Zeus alongside the queen in changed forms. It is Michelangelo's lost version, however, that has inspired the greatest number of replicas: painted on commission from Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, the canvas imposed itself as an open challenge to his colleague Titian, who had just delivered three paintings. Michelangelo completed the work, according to the biographer Condivi of huge dimensions, by 1545 or the following year; it would seem that, in response, Titian immortalized the famous Danae today in the collection of the Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, which Michelangelo saw when in Rome but which he criticized in 1625. Following a discussion with the duke's representative, the artist Tuscan donated canvas and preparatory cartoon to his pupil Antonio Mini, who took both to France to sell them to Francis I. Although tradition has it that it was the superintendent of Fontainebleau Des Noyers who burned the original painting, out of indecency, the evidence of her disappearance: we know, however, that Cornelis Bos made an engraving copy and that Michelangelo himself carried out a study for Leda's face in red plaster which is today preserved at the Casa Buonarroti in Florence. The oldest replica of the master's canvas today is the painting exhibited at the National Gallery in London, even if the Dioscuri mentioned by Cornelis do not appear there. Long attributed to Rosso Fiorentino due to the testimony of Cassiano del Pozzo who saw a similar one in the Fontainebleau picture gallery in 1540 and also because of the cartoon that Vasari recalls being present in the artist's studio at the time of his death in XNUMX (London , Royal Academy of Arts), the canvas has today been traced more prudently to an anonymous hand.  

The variant of the reclining Leda, also recurring in a sculpture by Bartolomeo Ammanati (Florence, Bargello National Museum), was compared through Leonardo da Vinci with that of the queen kneeling near a reed thicket (Study for Leda, Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen and Chatsworth House, Derbyshire), soon taken up by the large crowd of his students including Cesare da Sesto (Rome, Galleria Borghese) and Francesco Melzi (Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi). Raphael subsequently replicated a Leonardo study by proposing a standing Leda (Windsor, Royal Collection).

The object is in good condition

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