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1500-1508
The return to Florence
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The lost Leda
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All traces of Leda, a pagan image to the generating power of
nature, were lost in the 17th century; among the many copies and
versions, the most faithful is thought to be that of Cesare da Sesto
(after 1515), now in Salisbury.
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Cesare da Sesto
(b. 1477, Sesto Calende, d. 1523, Milano)
Leda and the Swan
1505-10
Wilton House, Salisbury |
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Leonardo da Vinci, Head of Leda and Studies
of Coiffure,
Royal Library, Windsor.
Leonardo returned repeatedly in his artistic and
scientific works to the theme of the knot, the
plait,
and the vortex, as derived from Verrocchio. A
pattern of spiralling motion, evident as well in the
elaborate hairstyle, provides a unifying element to
the figures of the woman and the swan, as well as to
the botanical details of the background.
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Leonardo da Vinci,
Head of a Girl, 1506-08, Pinacoteca Nazionale, Parma.
The painting is thought by some to be associated with Leda,
and believed by others to be a Madonna. At the
end of the 19th century Leonardo's authorship was
rejected by those who saw in it the hand of a Neoclassical
painter.
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Leonardo da Vinci, The Kneeling Leda,
Devonshire Collections, Chatsworth.
This study may have preceded the final working
of the Standing Leda. However, the poses of the
children at the woman's feet indicate
associations with the classical group of the
Nile, discovered in 1512.
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Leonardo da Vinci, Study for a
kneeling Leda
1503-07
Black chalk, pen and ink on paper, 126 x 109 cm
Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam
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Leonardo da Vinci, Studies of Leda and a horse
1503-07
Black chalk, brush and ink on paper
Royal Library, Windsor
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Raphael, Leda, 1505-06, Royal Library,
Windsor.
Raphael would also borrow and develop this Leonardesque idea
in the Galatea.
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Copies and workshop works
by the workshop and followers of Leonardo da Vinci
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Leda
1508-15
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
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 Leda
1510-15
Galleria Borghese, Rome |
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