Leda and the Swan (Michelangelo)  

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Leda and the Swan, art vandalism[1]

Leda and the Swan is a lost, and probably deliberately destroyed, painting by Michelangelo's, a tempera painting of the Leda and the swan making love, commissioned in 1529 by Alfonso d'Este for his palazzo in Ferrara. The painting was given by the artist to his friend Antonio Mini who took it to France, where it disappeared.

Michelangelo's cartoon for 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 an engraving by Cornelis de Bos, c. 1563; the marble sculpture by Bartolomeo Ammanati in the Bargello, Florence; two copies by the young Rubens on his Italian voyage, and the painting after Michelangelo, ca. 1530, in the National Gallery, London.

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's Leda.

The Michelangelo composition, of about 1530, shows Mannerist tendencies of elongation and twisted pose (the figura 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. It belonged to John Everett Millais and was included in his 2007 Tate Britain exhibition. Now London, attributed to a 16th-century "follower of Michelangelo".