A sudden blow: the great wings beating still
Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,
He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.
Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,
He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.
—William Butler Yeats, from “Leda and the Swan”
We looked a lot of Leda and Swan the other day, it can make me wistful for the traditional mythological subjects, so much invention happened within a single story. I was trying to recall what contemporary artists referenced this story, Cy Tyombly, Paul Cezanne, and I think Moreau but I must be forgetting some?
 |
| Leda and the Swan by Francesco Melzi after a lost painting by Leonardo da Vinci. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, 1508-15 |
 |
| GIACOMO ROBUSTI, detto TINTORETTO, Leda e il Cigno, Olio su tela, 1551 c. cm 147,5 x 147,5, Galleria degli Uffizi |
 |