Minneapolis Institute of Art

Leda and the Swan

Sebald Beham

Date

1548

Medium

Engraving

Department

European Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Disguised as a swan (made large, to indicate divinity), the Greek god Zeus sets his lecherous sights on Leda, wife of Sparta’s King Tyndareus. Hidden by the swan’s wings, she welcomes the seduction, caressing the bird’s suggestive neck and, in a very human detail, raising her heels in excitement. Her compressed form, monumental even in this tiny space, is ready to unfold. The union produced the mythical Castor, Pollux, Helen of Troy, and Clytemnestra. Germany, Europe

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