Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, the two most famous painters of the Renaissance, both painted the same subject: Leda and the Swan.
Both paintings ended up in France. Both were deliberately destroyed there, because their owners decided they were indecent.
Three great Renaissance painters tackled Leda and the Swan: Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Correggio. Two of the three originals no longer exist. Leonardo's and Michelangelo's Ledas were destroyed in France, and both survive only through copies made by students and followers. Only Correggio's original, now in Berlin, remains.
This page tells the full story: what each painting looked like, how two of them died, and how to tell the surviving copies apart.
Leonardo's Leda: Lost at Fontainebleau
Leonardo worked on Leda for years, in two different poses. His drawings explore a kneeling Leda first, then a standing one.
The finished painting showed Leda standing, nude, with the swan pressing against her at about hip height. At her feet, two eggs hatch open, and infant children emerge from the shells.
Around them, Leonardo painted a dense background of specific, identifiable plants he had studied from nature. It is one of the details copyists preserved most faithfully.
The original is recorded in the French royal collection at Fontainebleau into the 1600s. Then it disappears from the record. It is believed to have been destroyed there, possibly because of its perceived indecency, sometime after that.
What we have left are copies from Leonardo's circle. A version attributed to Cesare da Sesto, painted around 1515, is among the best known, and related copies now hang in the Galleria Borghese in Rome and the Uffizi in Florence.
Michelangelo's Leda: A Commission Gone Wrong, Then a Fire
Michelangelo painted his Leda in 1530, in tempera on canvas, for Alfonso d'Este, Duke of Ferrara.
The duke never received it. Michelangelo, reportedly insulted by the duke's agent, refused to deliver the painting. Instead he sent it to France with his assistant Antonio Mini, along with the full size preparatory cartoon.
His Leda reclines, or half reclines, in a heavy, sculptural pose that echoes his figures on the Sistine ceiling. Her contact with the swan is more direct and more ambiguous than in Leonardo's version.
The painting entered the French royal collection. In the seventeenth century, Queen Anne of Austria, wife of Louis XIII, is recorded as having ordered its destruction, objecting to its content.
A 1691 inventory documents the act, along with the burning of a related Michelangelo drawing of Leda.
Like Leonardo's, it survives only in copies. The best known hangs in the National Gallery in London, long attributed to Michelangelo's circle, sometimes catalogued as by Rosso Fiorentino or an unknown follower.
Correggio's Leda: The One That Survived
Correggio painted his own Leda and the Swan in 1530 to 1531, in oil on canvas. It hangs today in the Gemaldegalerie in Berlin, in the original.
It did not escape entirely. According to widely repeated museum history, the painting was damaged and defaced at one point: the head of Leda was cut out and later restored, reportedly because of objections to its content. The exact circumstances are a historical account rather than a documented certainty, so treat the details with care.
What makes Correggio's version unusual is its structure. Leonardo and Michelangelo each froze a single moment. Correggio painted a full sequence inside one canvas, a device called continuous narrative.
You see Leda bathing with her companions, the swan arriving, and the aftermath, all at once. It reads less like a snapshot and more like a short film compressed into one frame.
How to Tell the Versions Apart at a Glance
Standing figure, two hatching eggs with babies at her feet, botanically precise plants in the background: that is a copy after Leonardo.
Reclining or half reclining figure, muscular and sculptural like a Sistine ceiling figure, in close ambiguous contact with the swan: that is a copy after Michelangelo.
Several episodes in one canvas, with Leda bathing among companions before and after the swan appears: that is Correggio, and unlike the other two, you are looking at the original.
The Myth, Briefly
Zeus desired Leda, queen of Sparta. He transformed himself into a swan and, depending on the source, either seduced or raped her. Artistic tradition has usually softened the encounter into seduction.
On that same night, Leda also slept with her husband, King Tyndareus. She is said to have laid eggs, from which hatched Helen, later Helen of Troy, along with Clytemnestra and the twins Castor and Pollux.
Ancient sources disagree on which children came from Zeus and which from Tyndareus. The painters mostly sidestepped the question and put the eggs in the picture.
FAQ
Why were the Leda and the Swan paintings destroyed?
Because their owners judged them indecent. Leonardo's is believed to have been destroyed at Fontainebleau for that reason, and Queen Anne of Austria is recorded as having ordered the destruction of Michelangelo's in the seventeenth century, objecting to its content.
Which Leda and the Swan painting still exists?
Correggio's, painted in 1530 to 1531 and now in the Gemaldegalerie in Berlin. It is the only one of the three great Renaissance Ledas that survives in the original.
How do we know what Leonardo's and Michelangelo's Ledas looked like?
Through copies made by students and followers. For Leonardo, versions from his circle, including one attributed to Cesare da Sesto, are now at the Galleria Borghese and the Uffizi. For Michelangelo, the best known copy is in the National Gallery in London.
Who is Leda in the painting?
The queen of Sparta, wife of King Tyndareus. Zeus approached her in the form of a swan, and from that night she is said to have laid the eggs that produced Helen of Troy, Clytemnestra, Castor, and Pollux.
The Paper Trail of a Burning
The destruction of Michelangelo's Leda is not a legend passed down by word of mouth. A French royal inventory of 1691 documents the act, recording the destruction of the painting along with the burning of a related Michelangelo drawing of Leda.