Leda and the Swan
Leonardo da Vinci – Painter
Giovanni Antonio Bazzi AKA Il Sodoma – Attributed
Copyist
A.D. 1508 - Original
A.D. 1510-1515 - Copy
Tempera on Wood Panel
115 x 86 Centimeters
Original Last Possessed by Cassiano dal Pozzo
of France
Copy Possessed by the Galleria Borghese
Rome, Italy
The
original painter of Leda and the Swan
was Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo began
preparation for paintings of Leda in 1504, and he produced the original version
of this work in 1508 (Wikipedia 2014). He was born in A.D. 1452 to unmarried parents “in Anchiano,
Tuscany (now Italy), close to the town of Vinci that provided the surname we
associate with him today” (History.com Staff 2009). Leonardo da Vinci lived during the Italian
Renaissance and has become known
as the ideal “’Renaissance man’” because he
possessed skills in architecture, engineering, and painting (History.com Staff 2009). The title also refers to Leonardo’s many
talents, which in turn point to his wide range of interests and his personal belief
that all disciplines of life are interconnected.
Fifteen
year-old Leonardo da Vinci was apprenticed to the prominent Florentine artist
Andrea del Verrocchio. The budding artist was
offered membership in the painters’ guild of Florence, but he refused to join
the guild and continued to study under Verrocchio until 1478 (History.com Staff 2009). Leonardo’s first commission came in 1482 and
depicted The Adoration of the Magi for
San Donato, the Scopeto monastery in Florence. However, he never
finished this piece. Leonardo was called
away to Milan to sculpt for the Sforza family which ruled Milan until 1499 (History.com Staff 2009). In 1516, he left Italy, never
to return. He entered the employment of
the French King Francis I as “’Premier Painter and Engineer and Architect to
the King’” (History.com Staff 2009). “Leonardo da Vinci died at Cloux (now
Clos-Lucé) in 1519” and “was buried nearby in the palace church of
Saint-Florentin” (History.com Staff 2009).
Very
few of Leonardo da Vinci’s works exist in the world today. Leonardo's focus shifted among sundry
interests, and thus he left many projects unfinished when turning to a new
task. Many of Leonardo's
inventions are recorded in his personal notebooks, including plans for flying
machines. Two of his most famous
works include The Last Supper and the
Mona Lisa (History.com Staff 2009).
The
original painting of Leda and the Swan
by Leonardo da Vinci is considered to be lost and destroyed. The Galleria
Borghese houses a copy of this piece attributed to Giovanni Antonio Bazzi,
also known as Il Sodoma. He was
born in Vercelli (now a city in the united Italy) in A.D. 1477. He “was the son of a shoemaker” and learned
painting under G.M. Spanzotti (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica 2014). Il Sodoma’s artistic style was “much
influenced by Leonardo da Vinci and later by Raphael,” and his works
demonstrate “the transition from High Renaissance to Mannerist style” (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica 2014). The painter was brought to Rome by Agostino
Chigi and painted in the Vatican’s Stanza
della Segnatura for Pope Julius II. Other
works by Bazzi include frescoes for Saint Anna in Camprena, frescoes in the Villa Farnesina in Rome, and “frescoes
in the town hall (Palazzo Pubblico) in Siena” (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica 2014). Giovanni Bazzi’s unique nickname, Il Sodoma, references his homosexual
tendencies, which were well known during his lifetime (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica 2014). Il Sodoma excelled at painting “the sensuous
beauty of the human form” (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica 2014), and he was
inspired by the works of Leonardo da Vinci; both of these facts make Giovanni
Bazzi an ideal copyist for Leonardo da Vinci’s Leda and the Swan. Il Sodoma
died in Siena on February 14 or 15, 1549.
The original painting of Leda and the Swan is considered to be lost and
destroyed. All that remains of Leonardo’s
original painting is a collection of copies by various artists (Wikipedia 2014). Each copy varies slightly from another. In the copy of Leda and the Swan by Il Sodoma (Giovanni Antonio Bazzi), the
foreground is occupied by four central figures – a woman, two male children,
and one white swan. The woman is
completely nude, and stands while holding on to the white swan to her left. The woman directs her gaze down and to her
right to watch the young boys playing at her feet. The boys are also nude and look back at
their mother. The swan raises its head
in triumph or happiness as it places its right wing behind the woman to caress
her. Other elements in the foreground
include flowers, birds, and a mysterious white egg, most likely the egg of the
white swan, sitting in the grass behind the babies. The background of this piece is idyllic. One sees a lake behind the woman, and a river
is crossed by a bridge to the viewer’s left of the woman. On the viewer’s right, the background is
occupied by a single tree and an expanse of greenery extending into the
distance.
Leda and the Swan features
mythological subjects out of a Greek myth.
The nude woman represents Leda, the beautiful “daughter of Thestius,
king of Aetolia” (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica 2013). The swan is Zeus, king of the Greek gods, who
seduced Leda “in the guise of a [white] swan” (Wikipedia 2015).
The two male children are Castor and Pollux, who are said to be the
children of Leda and Zeus. The story of Leda and the Swan is the subject of
numerous paintings by Italian Renaissance artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo,
and Correggio. The characters in Il
Sodoma’s copy of Leda and the Swan
are symbolic because they represent an ancient myth about the love affair
between Leda, “Queen of Sparta” (Wikipedia 2015), and the Greek god
Zeus.
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The
white egg in Il Sodoma’s painting is highly symbolic in the story of Leda and the Swan. The white egg behind Castor and Pollux seems
mysterious at first, but it symbolizes how the children were born. “[O]n the same night as Leda lay with her
husband Tyndareus” (Wikipedia 2015), Leda was being
seduced by Zeus in the disguise of a swan. Her
sexual acts with Zeus led to an egg which bore the twins Castor
and Pollux.
However,
the white egg may also represent other characters from the legend of Leda and the Swan who are not depicted in Il
Sodoma’s painting.
According to some versions of the myth, “both the twins and possibly
also [. . .] Clytemnestra [. . .] hatched from the eggs of Leda” (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica 2013). Another version of the myth says that Helen of
Troy was born from the egg of Leda and Zeus.
Still other versions of the myth tell that “Leda bore the twins to her mortal
husband, Tyndareus” (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica 2013), or that Helen was
born to Leda out of an egg left by the goddess Nemesis, who had herself been
seduced by the swan disguise of Zeus. Because
the myth of Leda and Zeus has several variations, painters who chose to depict Leda and the Swan have great freedom
when deciding which figures to include in the artwork. Regardless of which variant of the myth is
most accurate, Il Sodoma’s copy of Leda
and the Swan includes the white egg to symbolize birth (the birth of the
twin boys) and to record the story of Leda’s love affair with the god Zeus (the
white swan).
In Leda and the Swan the swan itself is a symbol. The love between Leda and Zeus is represented
by a swan because “Swans are often a symbol of love or fidelity because of
their long-lasting, apparently monogamous relationships” (Wikipedia 2015).
The symbolism of fidelity in love is ironic to the story of Leda and
Zeus. By sleeping with both her husband Tyndareus
and with the god Zeus, Leda was being unfaithful to both sexual partners. Likewise, Zeus (as well as many Greek and Roman
gods) is known for sexual relations with many women, mortal and immortal alike (Hunt N.D.).
Swans
also are symbolic of specific female and male characteristics. In the myth of Leda and the Swan, Zeus took the form of a white swan. In certain cultures, white swans are “symbol[s]
of beauty” when referring to females (Becker 2000). By placing a white swan next to the nude female
figure in his painting, Il Sodoma heightens the perception of Leda as
beautiful. Zeus was attracted to Leda
for her beauty. Furthermore, by appearing
as a white swan, Zeus’s power is heightened by historical symbolism. “In antiquity, on the other hand, the
masculine aspect [of a swan] predominated: as a symbol of virility” (Becker 2000). Therefore, Zeus takes the form of a white
swan to prove his power as a man, which he uses to seduce Leda into a sexual
relationship.
Leda and the Swan tells the mythological story of Leda and Zeus. In Leda and the Swan, the egg and the white
swan have special symbolism to the story.
The egg symbolizes how the two young children in the painting were born,
and hints at the many variations of the myth itself. The white swan represents the beauty of Leda
and the masculinity of Zeus.
Contextualization is needed to understand the story told by Leda and the Swan. Without the context of ancient Greek mythology, the two central figures in the painting seem to lack a purpose for standing closely as they do. Perhaps the pristine white swan is used as a symbol of beauty to heighten the viewer's sense of the young lady's beauty. Without context, the children are most likely her sons, but the white egg is unexplained. By giving the viewer context by telling the story of Zeus seducing Leda, the viewer now understands the white swan as a representation of Zeus and the white egg as the method of birth for the two sons.
References
Becker, Udo.
2000. Continuum Encyclopedia of Symbols. Continuum. Accessed April 04,
2015.
https://books.google.it/books?id=00kybj_-nBIC&pg=PA289&lpg=PA289&dq=Swan+as+symbol+for+beauty&source=bl&ots=APe6EiwP16&sig=4RO_Zoxi9oDQhNhksQVrho9vb_4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=jCwgVYiWGqvB7AaP44E4&ved=0CGEQ6AEwDQ#v=onepage&q=Swan%20as%20symbol%20for%20beauty&f=false.
History.com Staff. 2009.
"Leonardo da Vinci." History.com. N.D. N.D. Accessed March
31, 2015. http://www.history.com/topics/leonardo-da-vinci.
Hunt, J.M. N.D. Zeus
Lovers. N.D. N.D. Accessed April 04, 2015.
http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/bdodge/scaffold/gg/zeusLover.html#ZeusLover.
The Editors of
Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2014. "Il Sodoma." Encyclopaedia
Britannica. November 20. Accessed April 04, 2015. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/552326/Il-Sodoma.
—. 2013. "Leda."
Encyclopaedia Britannica. July 17. Accessed April 04, 2015.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/334476/Leda.
Wikipedia. 2015. Leda
(Mythology). February 24. Accessed April 04, 2015. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leda_%28mythology%29.
—. 2014. Leda and the
Swan (Leonardo). November 5. Accessed March 31, 2015.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leda_and_the_Swan_%28Leonardo%29.
—. 2015. Swan.
April 04. Accessed April 04, 2015. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan.
Report by Austin D. Caldwell - 2015
