Leda and her children playing with the swan, with a Roman temple in the background

Giovanni Battista Palumba Italian

Not on view

According to Roman mythology, the god Jupiter transformed himself into a swan to seduce Leda, wife of a Spartan king, as she was bathing. She bore two eggs, from which two sets of twins were hatched—one of the babies was Helen of Troy. Palumba’s engraving was undoubtedly inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s ideas for a painting of Leda, preserved in two drawings now in Chatsworth (Derbyshire, United Kingdom) and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (Rotterdam). The ancient ruin of the Minerva Medica in Rome provides a splendid frame for the scene, as its form corresponds to the many curves of the composition and echoes that of the broken eggshell in the foreground.

Leda and her children playing with the swan, with a Roman temple in the background, Giovanni Battista Palumba (Italian, active ca. 1500–1520), Engraving

Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Open Access

As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.

API

Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.

Leda and her children playing with the swan, with a Roman temple in the background, Giovanni Battista Palumba (Italian, active ca. 1500–1520), Engraving
Leda and her children playing with the swan, with a Roman temple in the background, Giovanni Battista Palumba (Italian, active ca. 1500–1520), Engraving

This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.