Leda and the Swan | Bachiacca (Francesco d'Ubertino Verdi) | All | European Paintings | Collection Database | Works of Art

NotesOther versions of this subject by Bacchiacca are at Villa I Tatti, Settignano; Musée des Beaux-Arts, Troyes; Museum Boijmans-Van Beuningen, Rotterdam; and formerly with Julius Böhler.

The picture is painted on a panel with an intentionally convex surface. The vertical edges have been cut, though probably not very much. On the whole the condition is good. There are scattered minor losses and a few larger ones in the foreground and on the left wing of the swan. The picture was cleaned in 1983.

For identification of mythological subject matter, see Ref. Christiansen 1984. Suida [see Ref. 1949] notes that Leda's pose derives from a print by Dürer, "The Penance of Saint John Chrysostum," and Shearman [see Ref. 1965] identifies the source of the buildings in the left background as a print of "The Prodigal Son" by Lucas van Leyden of 1510. Nikolenko [see Ref. 1966] dates the picture about 1525.

ProvenanceOscar Bondy, Vienna, later Switzerland and New York (by 1929–d. 1944; seized by the Nazis for the Führer Museum, Linz; inv., n.d., as "Oelbild, Leda auf Schwan sitzend," in the Renaissancezimmer; sent in 1941 from Kremsmünster to the Kunstmuseum Linz; Bondy inv. no. 1372, "v.Conninxlo, Leda"); Mrs. Oscar Bondy, New York (1944–at least 1946; at Alt Aussee salt mines, Austria, in 1945; Bondy inv. nos. 1372, "Leda mit Schwan und 5 Putten, Oel auf Holz ital.Manier," and 1685 B 1372, "Conningslo, Mytholg.Darstellung"; almost certainly restituted along with rest of collection); Mr. and Mrs. Jack Linsky, New York (by 1949–his d. 1980); Mrs. Jack Linsky, New York (1980–82)

Exhibition History

Los Angeles County Museum. "Leonardo da Vinci," June 3–July 17, 1949, no. 7.

Baltimore Museum of Art. "Bacchiacca and His Friends," January 10–February 19, 1961, no. 8.

References

Wilhelm Suida. Leonardo und sein Kreis. Munich, 1929, p. 245.

Bernhard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Oxford, 1932, p. 36.

Bernhard Berenson. Pitture italiane del rinascimento. Milan, 1936, p. 31.

Roberto Salvini in Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler. 33, Leipzig, 1939, p. 523.

William E. Suida in Leonardo da Vinci. Exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum. Los Angeles, 1949, pp. 75–76, no. 7, ill.

Howard S. Merritt in Bacchiacca and His Friends. Exh. cat., Baltimore Museum of Art. Baltimore, 1961, p. 32 n. 9.

Gertrude Rosenthal in Bacchiacca and His Friends. Exh. cat., Baltimore Museum of Art. Baltimore, 1961, p. 8, fig. 8.

Gertrude Rosenthal. "Il Bacchiacca at Baltimore." Connoisseur 149 (January 1962), p. 61, fig. 8.

Bernard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Florentine School. London, 1963, vol. 1, p. 20; vol. 2, pl. 1247.

John Shearman. Andrea del Sarto. Oxford, 1965, p. 216.

Lada Nikolenko. Francesco Ubertini called "Il Bacchiacca". Locust Valley, N.Y., 1966, pp. 18, 50, fig. 45.

Charles D. Colbert. "Bacchiacca in the Context of Florentine Art." PhD diss., Harvard University, 1979, p. 62 [see Ref. La France 2002].

Silvia Meloni Trkulja in Firenze e la Toscana dei Medici nell'Europa del Cinquecento: Il primato del disegno. Exh. cat., Palazzo Strozzi. Florence, 1980, p. 60.

Alessandro Vezzosi in Leonardo e il Leonardismo a Napoli e a Roma. Exh. cat., Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples. Florence, 1983, p. 111, no. 201, fig. 201.

Keith Christiansen in The Jack and Belle Linsky Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1984, pp. 43–44, no. 11, ill. (color).

Denys Sutton. "The Linsky Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Apollo, n.s., 122 (July 1985), p. 9, fig. 6.

Roberta Bartoli in Leonardo e il mito di Leda. Exh. cat., Palazzino Uzielli del Museo Leonardiana Vinci. Cinisello Balsamo (Milan), 2001, unpaginate, under no. III.8.

Robert G. La France. "Francesco d'Ubertino Verdi, il Bachiacca (1494–1557): 'diligente dipintore'." PhD diss., Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 2002, pp. 382–84, no. 36.

Sophie Lillie. Was einmal war: Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens. Vienna, 2003, p. 229.

Birgit Schwarz. Hitlers Museum, Die Fotoalben "Gemäldegalerie Linz": Dokumente zum "Führermuseum". Vienna, 2004, pp. 119, 499, no. V/18b, ill. p. 253 (reproduction of page from photo album).

Giovanni Maria Fara. Albrecht Dürer: originali, copie, derivazioni. Florence, 2007, p. 114, under no. 45.

Robert G. La France. Bachiacca: Artist of the Medici Court. Florence, 2008, pp. 26, 67, 102, 107, 153, 187, 293, no. 42, colorpl. XXVIII.

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