Wikipedia

Leda and the Swan

This article is about the story and its depictions. For other uses, seeLeda and the Swan (disambiguation).

Leda and the Swanis a story and subject in art fromGreek mythologyin which the godZeus,in the form of aswan,seduces or rapesLeda,a Spartan queen. According to later Greek mythology, Leda boreHelenandPolydeuces,children of Zeus, while at the same time bearingCastorandClytemnestra,children of her husbandTyndareus,the King ofSparta.According to many versions of the story, Zeus took the form of a swan and raped Leda on the same night she slept with her husband KingTyndareus.In some versions, she laid two eggs from which the children hatched.[2]In other versions, Helen is a daughter ofNemesis,the goddess who personified the disaster that awaited those suffering from the pride ofHubris.

"...this statue is a first-century Roman version of an earlier Greek statue from the 300s B.C. attributed to Timotheos. More than two dozen examples of this statue survive, attesting to the theme's popularity among the Romans....Both arms, most of the outstretched cloak, the swan's head, and the folds of cloth between Leda's legs are eighteenth-century restorations. The head, though ancient, is not original to this work, but comes from a statue of Venus".[1]Marble.Getty Villa
Leda and the Swan,a 16th-centurycopy after a lost paintingbyMichelangelo(National Gallery, London)
Roman oil lamp,1st century AD

Especially in art, the degree of consent by Leda to the relationship seems to vary considerably; there are numerous depictions, for example byLeonardo da Vinci,that show Leda affectionately embracing the swan, as their children play.

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 toTimotheus(compare illustration, below left); small-scale sculptures survive showing both reclining and standing poses,[3]incameosandengraved gems,rings, and terracotta oil lamps. Thanks to the literary renditions ofOvidandFulgentius[4]it was a well-known myth through the Middle Ages, but emerged more prominently as a classicizing theme, witherotic overtones,in the Italian Renaissance.

Further information:Leda (mythology)

Eroticism

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Leda and the Swan,Roman marble possibly reflecting a lost work byTimotheosfrom the 300s BCE. More than two dozen examples of this statue survive. restored (Prado)

The historianProcopiusclaims, in his Secret History, that theRoman EmpressTheodoraacted in a reproduction of this particular myth at some point in her youth in the early sixth century CE prior to her becoming the empress. This account is heavily disputed for the biases Roman aristocrats including Procopius had towards the role of women and the reputation of actresses and sex workers at the time.

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.[5]

The fate of the erotic albumI Modisome years later shows why this was so. 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 theold master print,and mostly from Venice. They were often based on the extremely brief account in theMetamorphosesofOvid(who does not imply a rape), thoughLorenzo de' Medicihad both a Roman sarcophagus and anantique carved gemof the subject, both with reclining Ledas.[6]

The earliest known explicit Renaissance depiction is one of the manywoodcutillustrations toHypnerotomachia Poliphili,a book published inVenicein 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.[7]An engraving dating to 1503 at the latest, byGiovanni Battista Palumba,also shows the couple incoitus,but in deserted countryside.[8]Another engraving, certainly from Venice and attributed by many toGiulio Campagnola,shows a love-making scene, but there Leda's attitude is highly ambiguous.[9][10]Palumba made another engraving, perhaps in about 1512, presumably influenced by Leonardo's sketches for his earlier composition, showing Leda seated on the ground and playing with her children.[11]

There were also significant depictions in the smaller decorative arts, also private media.Benvenuto Cellinimade a medallion, now in Vienna, early in his career, andAntonio Abondioone on theobverseof a medal celebrating a Romancourtesan.[12]

In painting

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See also:Leda and the Swan (Leonardo)
Leda and the Swan,copy byCesare da Sestoafter a lost original byLeonardo,1515–1520, Oil on canvas,Wilton House,England.

A fresco depicting the Greek myth of Leda and the Swan was unearthed at the Pompeii archeological site.[13]

Leonardo da Vincibegan making studies in 1504 for a painting, apparently never executed, of Leda seated on the ground with her children. In 1508 he painted adifferent composition of the subject,with a nude standing Leda cuddling the Swan, with the two sets of infant twins (also nude), and their huge broken egg-shells. The original of this is lost, possibly deliberately destroyed, and was last recorded in the French royalChâteau de Fontainebleauin 1625 byCassiano dal Pozzo.[14]However it is known from many copies, of which the earliest are probably theSpiridon Leda,perhaps by a studio assistant and now in theUffizi,[15]and the one atWilton Housein the United Kingdom (illustrated).

Also lost, and probably deliberately destroyed, isMichelangelo's temperapainting of the pairmaking love, commissioned in 1529 byAlfonso d'Estefor his palazzo inFerrara,and taken to France for the royal collection in 1532; it was atFontainebleauin 1536. Michelangelo'scartoonfor 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 anambitious engravingbyCornelis Bos,c. 1563; the marble sculpture byBartolomeo Ammanatiin the Bargello, Florence; two copies by the youngRubenson his Italian voyage, and the painting after Michelangelo, ca. 1530, in theNational Gallery, London.[16]The Michelangelo composition, of about 1530, showsManneristtendencies of elongation and twisted pose (thefigura 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.[17]

Leda and the SwanbyCorreggio

The last very famous Renaissance painting of the subject isCorreggio's elaborate composition of c. 1530 (Berlin); this too was damaged whilst in thecollection of Philippe II, Duke of Orléans,the Regent of France in the minority ofLouis XV.His sonLouis,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.[18]

There were many other depictions in the Renaissance, including cycles of book illustrations to Ovid, but most were derivative of the compositions mentioned above.[19]The subject remained largely confined to Italy, and sometimes France – Northern versions are rare.[20]After something of a hiatus in the 18th and early 19th centuries (apart from a very sensuousBoucher,[21]), Leda and the Swan became again a popular motif in the later 19th and 20th centuries, with manySymbolistandExpressionisttreatments.

Oleksa Novakivskyi'sLeda and the Swan,Ukraine

Also from that era were sculptures of the theme byAntonin MerciéandMax Klinger.[22]

Paul Cézanne'sLeda and the Swan[23]

In modern and contemporary art

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Cy Twomblyexecuted an abstract version ofLeda and the Swanin 1962. It was purchased byLarry Gagosianfor $52.9 million at Christie's May 2017 Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale.[24]

Avant-garde filmmaker Kurt Kren along with other members of theViennese Actionistmovement, includingOtto MuehlandHermann Nitsch,made a film-performance called7/64 Leda und der Schwanin 1964. The film retains the classical motif, portraying, for most of its duration, a young woman embracing a swan.[citation needed]

There is a life-sized marble statue ofLeda and the Swanat theJai Vilas Palace MuseuminGwalior,NorthernMadhya Pradesh,India.[25]

American artist and photographerCarole Harmelcreated the "Bird" series (1983), a Jean Cocteau-influenced collection of photographs that explored the "Leda and the Swan" myth in tightly cropped, voyeuristic images of a nude female and an undefinable birdlike creature hinting at intimacy.[26][27]

Bristol Museum and Art Gallery currently exhibits Karl Weschke'sLeda and the Swan,painted in 1986. TheWinnipeg Art Galleryin Canada has, in its permanent collection, a ceramic "Leda and the Swan" by Japanese-born American artistAkio Takamori.Genieve Figgispainted her version of Leda and the Swan in 2018 after an earlier work byFrançois Boucher.Figgis’ contemporary version reinvents the idyllic romantic scene of lavish playfulness with a dark humor creating a scene of profanity and horror.[28][29]There is a sculpture in neon lights depicting Leda and the Swan in Berlin, near Sonnenallee metro station and the Estrel hotel, designed byAES+F.PhotographerCharlie Whiteincluded a portrait of Leda in his "And Jeopardize the Integrity of the Hull" series. Zeus, as the swan, only appears metaphorically.[citation needed]

Relief fromArgos, Greece,50 - 100 CE

In poetry

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A mosaic from the Sanctuary of Aphrodite, Palea PaphosCyprus.Cyprus Museum, Nicosia. Around 3rd century AD

Ronsardwrote a poem onLa Défloration de Lède,perhaps inspired by the Michelangelo, which he may well have known. He imagines the beak going into Leda's mouth.[30]

"Leda and the Swan" is a sonnet byWilliam Butler Yeatscomposed in 1923 and first published in theDialinJune, 1924,and later published in the collection 'The Cat the Moon and Certain Poems' in 1924. Combiningpsychological realismwith a mystic vision, it describes the swan's rape ofLeda.It also alludes to theTrojan war,which will be provoked by the abduction ofHelen,who will be begotten by Zeus on Leda (along withCastor and Pollux,in some versions of the myth).Clytaemnestra,who killed her husband,Agamemnon,leader of the Greeks at Troy, was also supposed to have hatched from one of Leda's eggs. The poem is regularly praised as one of Yeats's masterpieces.[31]Camille Paglia,who called the poem "the greatest poem of the twentieth century," and said "all human beings, like Leda, are caught up moment by moment in the 'white rush' of experience. For Yeats, the only salvation is the shapeliness and stillness of art."[32]See external links for a bas relief arranged in the position as described by Yeats.

Nicaraguan poetRubén Darío's 1892 poem "Leda" contains an oblique description of the rape, watched over by the godPan.[33]

H.D.(Hilda Doolittle) also wrote a poem called "Leda" in 1919, suggested to be from the perspective of Leda. The description of the sexual action going on makes it seem almost beautiful, as if Leda had given her consent.

In the song "Power and Glory" fromLou Reed's 1992 albumMagic and Loss,Reed recalls the experience of seeing his friend dying of cancer and makes reference to the myth:

I sawisotopesintroduced into his lungs
trying to stop the cancerous spread
And it made me think of Leda and The Swan
and gold being made from lead[34]

Sylvia Plathalludes to the myth in herradio playThree Womenwritten for theBBCin 1962. The play features the voices of three women. The first is a married woman who keeps her baby. The second is a secretary who suffers a miscarriage. The third voice, a student who is pregnant and gives her baby up for adoption, mentions "the great swan, with its terrible look,/ Coming at me,/ There is a snake in swans./ He glided by; his eye had a black meaning." and repeats a refrain of "I wasn't ready" stating "the face/ Went on shaping itself with love, as if I was ready." describing the unwanted pregnancy.[35]

In literature

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Leda and the SwanbyJean-Léon Gérôme,1895

Several references to the myth are presented in novels byAngela Carter,includingNights at the CircusandThe Magic Toyshop.In the latter novel, the myth is brought to life in the form of a performance in which a frightened young girl is forced to act as Leda in accompaniment with a large mechanical swan.

The myth is also mentioned inRichard Yates' 1962 novelRevolutionary Road.The character Frank Wheeler, married to April Wheeler, after having had sex with an office secretary ponders what to say as he is leaving: "Did the swan apologize to Leda? Did an eagle apologize? Did a lion apologize? Hell no!" [36]

InRobert Galbraith's 2020 novel,Troubled Blood,one of the main characters Robin Ellacott, visits a painting gallery where she sees a painting of Leda and the swan done by one character who is an artist in the novel.[37]Furthermore, the other protagonist of the Strike series, the eponymous detective Cormoran Strike, was born to a mother named Leda and swans appear in several of the novels.[38]

In fashion

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Leda and the Swanstatue fromAchilleioninCorfu,Greece.

In 1935, German-born movie starMarlene Dietrichwore a dramatically designed Leda costume to a Hollywood costume party. Designed by the acclaimed costume designerTravis Banton,a longtime Dietrich collaborator, the white tulle and feather dress featured a thigh-slit, a mid-length train and, most characteristically, a fabric and feather "swan" neck which coiled around Dietrich's own neck, as well a pair of large feathered wings, one stretching downwards across her chest and the other one upwards across her left shoulder.[39]

66 years later, at the 2001 Academy Awards, Icelandic singerBjörkwore a dress by Marjan Pejoski in nude mesh and a white tulle skirt. The skirt gradually narrowed upwards over the torso to turn into a swan-neck made out of fabric which coiled around the wearer's neck in exactly the same way as Dietrich's dress from 1935. Although Dietrich's costume remains largely unknown to the general public, Björk's dress "attained cult status instantly"[40]and became an icon ofred carpet culture.Yet, the reference to Marlene Dietrich's costume was rarely (if ever) mentioned at the time.

In June 2021,Maria Grazia Chiurias creative director for the French fashion houseDior,designed a collection strongly inspired by Hellenistic culture, theOlympic Games,and Ancient Greek Mythology, and showed it at thePanathenaic StadiuminAthensas an homage to the Olympic tradition (the collection was shown a month before the beginning of the2020 Summer Olympics). The collection's closingpièce de résistancewas a Leda-inspired swan dress. The immediate visual similarity between Chiuri's swan Dress and Björk'sswan dresssparked excitement on social media as most people inevitably thought the Dior dress was directly inspired by Pejoski's iconic 2001 creation. However, only a few days later, Dior openly defended the inspiration of the dress referring to it on its Twitter account as a recreation of a costume worn by Marlene Dietrich, who was, famously, an important and loyal client of the French brand during the 40s and 50s.[41]Notably, Chiuri's 2021 Dior dress featured feathered swan-wings spanning over the chest and shoulder. This dramatic detail, taken directly from Dietrich's costume from 1935, sets Chiuri's dress for Dior entirely apart from Björk's red-carpet dress, and makes it, irrefutably, a reference to Dietrich's costume, and by extension, to the myth of Leda and the Swan.[citation needed]

In modern media

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Leda column ofLas Incantadas,Louvre.

A version of the Leda and the Swan story is the foundation myth in the Canadian futuristic thriller television seriesOrphan Blackwhich aired over 5 seasons from 2013 to 2017. A corporation uses genetic engineering to create a series of female clones (Leda) and a series of male clones (Castor) who are also brothers and sisters clones as they derive from one mother who is a chimera with male and female genomes.[citation needed]

Musical artistHozierreleased the singleSwan Upon Ledain 2022, referencing the myth as a tool to advocate for reproductive rights.[42]

The 2021 wordless, 3D feature film Leda transports the myth to dark forests and deep lakes that surround a mid-19th century mansion.[43]Directed by Samuel Tressler IV and starringAdeline Thery,the story focuses on a pregnant Leda, nightmarishly haunted by the image of a swan and lost between dream and reality in a state of trauma.

In commerce

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The Philadelphia cigar maker Bobrow Brothers made a brand of cigars with the name "Leda" which was sold at least into the 1940s. The cigar label depicted Leda and the Swan in a river.[44]

Modern censorship

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In April 2012 an art gallery in London, England, was instructed by the police to remove a modern exhibit of Leda and the Swan.[45]The law concerned wasSection 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008,condemning "violent pornography", brought in by theLabour Partygovernment of 2005–2010.[46]

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  • Leda and Zeus transformed into a swan.A 2nd century BCE Roman version of an earlier Greek statue attributed to Timotheos from the 300s BCE. More than two dozen examples of this statue survive. Palazzo Nuovo (Capitoline Museums), Rome.
  • Leda and the Swan,ancient fresco fromPompeii
  • Leda and the Swancopy by Giovanni Francesco Melzi after the lost painting byLeonardo,1508–1515, oil on canvas,Galleria degli Uffizi,Florence,Italy.
  • Drawing byCornelis Bosafter the lost original byMichelangelo.Between 1530 and 1550
  • Leda and the Swan.Georg Pencz
  • Leda and the SwanbyBenvenuto Cellini
  • Leda and the Swan,by Massimiliano Soldani, 1725
  • Attributed toFrançois Boucher,1740, oil on canvas.
  • Leda and the Swan,charcoal, gouache on paper. (Ulpiano Checa)
  • Leda and the Swanby Fernando Botero, 1996
  • Genieve Figgis,Leda and the Swan (after Boucher),2018, Acrylic on canvas, 23 x 31 inches
  • Egg sculpture onPefnos,2020, by Yiannis Gouzos and Petros Themelis.[47]

Notes

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  1. ^J. Paul Getty Museum."Statue of Leda and the Swan".Getty.J. Paul Getty Museum.Retrieved14 March2023.
  2. ^The idea that the semen of more than one male might influence pregnancy, a feature in the origin myth ofTheseus,is calledtelegony;it retained scientific followers until the late nineteenth century.
  3. ^Bull p. 167. See for example a marble relief with the Swan, grasping the back of Leda's neck with his beak, excavated in Argos,Peloponnese,Greece, from 50–100 ADin the British Museum;See External links for other examples
  4. ^Fulgentius, Fabuis Planciades (1971).The Fable of the Swan and Leda.Ohio State University Press. p. 78.ISBN978-0-8142-0162-6.
  5. ^Bull p 167
  6. ^Bull p167
  7. ^Page 166 – Hypnerotomachia Poliphili
  8. ^Photo of the print
  9. ^Campagnola, Giulio."Leda and the Swan".Bodkin Prints. Archived fromthe originalon 13 April 2013.
  10. ^Not a woodcut, as Bull (p169) wrongly says (see Hind BM catalogue, The IllustratedBartschetc); nor is his view of Leda's expression the only one.
  11. ^British Museum copy;The Metropolitan Museum of Art – Special Exhibitions: Poets, Lovers, and Heroes in Italian Mythological Prints
  12. ^Abondio, NGA Washington
  13. ^"Fresco depicting erotic scene uncovered in Pompeii ruins".20 November 2018.
  14. ^Benzine, Vittoria (8 April 2024)."The Hunt: Was Leonardo's 'Leda and the Swan' Lost, or Never Completed?".Artnet.
  15. ^image;Fossi, Gloria, pp. 402–3,Uffizi: art, history, collections,Giunti Editore Firenze Italy, 2004,ISBN88-09-03676-X,9788809036765google books
  16. ^Elfriede R. Knauer, "Leda."Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen 11(1969:5–35) illustrates several copies as well as an engraving of a Roman bas-relief and examples of antique engraved gems that seem to have provided Micelangelo's inspiration and gives a full bibliography of Michelangelo'sLeda.
  17. ^It belonged toJohn Everett Millaisand was included in his 2007Tate Britainexhibition. Now London, attributed to a 16th-century "follower of Michelangelo".
  18. ^Bull 169.
  19. ^Bacchiacca (Francesco d'Ubertino): Leda and the Swan | Work of Art | Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  20. ^Bull 170.
  21. ^"Leda and the Swan".Archived fromthe originalon 8 April 2007.Retrieved10 March2007.
  22. ^Dijkstra, Bram, Idols of Perversity, Oxford University Press, New York, 1986 p.315
  23. ^Now in theBarnes Foundation Collection,Merion, Pennsylvaniahas been dated as early as 1868 and as late as 1886–1890; the best estimate is 1880–1882;Great French Paintings from the Barnes Foundation: Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and Early Modern.New York: Knopf, 1993. 106.
  24. ^Cy Twombly (8 September 2023)."Leda and the Swan".
  25. ^"Jiwaji Rao Scindia Museum – Collection".Archived fromthe originalon 11 February 2015.Retrieved11 February2015.
  26. ^Pieszak, Devonna. "Carole Harmel", Catalogue essay, Chicago: Galerija, 1983.
  27. ^Bone, James. "Art Facts: a mix of media on Wells Street",Chicago Reader,11 March 1983.
  28. ^Chen, Xi (5 February 2021)."Being So Caught up: Exploring Religious Projection and Ethical Appeal in Leda and the Swan".Religions.12(2). MDPI: 107.doi:10.3390/rel12020107.
  29. ^"Leda and the Swan Theme".methoduspi.br.2 October 2020.Retrieved3 October2020.
  30. ^Bull p.169;the poem, in French and English
  31. ^Bloom, Harold (1972).Yeats.Oxford UP. pp. 363–66.ISBN978-0-19-501603-1.
  32. ^Paglia, Camille (2006).Break, Blow, Burn.Random House. pp. 114–18.ISBN978-0-375-72539-5.
  33. ^Darío, Rubén; Andrew Hurley; Greg Simon; Steven F. White (2005). Ilan Stavans (ed.).Selected Writings: Ruben Dario.Penguin. pp.20–21.ISBN978-0-14-303936-5.
  34. ^Bumgardner, Ed (25 January 1992)."Lou Reed's 'Magic and Loss' a requiem that leads to hope".Winston-Salem Journal.pp. 50,51.Retrieved17 June2024– via Newspapers.
  35. ^Wills, Jessica (4 August 2023)."Misunderstood Motherhood: The Poetry of Sylvia Plath and Sharon Olds".VoegelinView.
  36. ^Third Vintage Contemporaries Edition, 2008, pg106
  37. ^"Troubled Blood | Latest Crime Novel By Robert Galbraith".robert-galbraith.Retrieved27 April2023.
  38. ^Lindsay."Swans".The Strike and Ellacot Files.Retrieved22 February2024.
  39. ^"This Was Hollywood [@thiswashollywood".10 March 2020.
  40. ^Gopaldas, A. (2021, June 22).An up-close look at the savoir-faire behind the swan dress from Dior Cruise 2022.Vogue Singapore.https://vogue.sg/dior-swan-dress/
  41. ^Dior. (2021, June 21) Endless meters of white tulle [...]. Retrieved fromhttps://twitter /dior/status/1407081359496167428
  42. ^"'Swan Upon Leda' Review: For Hozier, Oppression and Resistance are Mythical and Mundane | Arts | The Harvard Crimson ".thecrimson.Retrieved2 June2024.
  43. ^Richard Kuipers, Sydney Film Festival
  44. ^U.S. Patent Office (1949).Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office.United States: U.S. Patent Office. p. 401.Retrieved17 June2024– via Google Books.
  45. ^Furness, Hannah (28 April 2012)."'Mythical' swan photo taken down after 'bestiality' fears ".The Daily Telegraph.
  46. ^UK Legislative
  47. ^"The monument of the Dioscuri in Stoupa was inaugurated".in.gr(in Greek). 25 August 2020.

References

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  • Bull, Malcolm,The Mirror of the Gods, How Renaissance Artists Rediscovered the Pagan Gods,Oxford UP, 2005,ISBN0-19-521923-6

Further reading

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