The lost Leda and the Swan

Apr 23
19:11

2013

jerryailily

jerryailily

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Leonardo da Vinci is a genius. His study and imagination was far beyond the time, but he did not publish his findings or inventions and they had no direct influence on later science.

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Leonardo da Vinci is a genius. His study and imagination was far beyond the time, The lost Leda and the Swan Articles but he did not publish his findings or inventions and they had no direct influence on later science. His talent on art was amazing, but he did not paint a lot and only fifteen artworks survived today. The small number because of his constant and frequently disastrous experimentation with new techniques and his chronic procrastination. 
Many works were lost or destroyed during the long history, Leda and the Swan is one of them. Leda and the Swan is a lost and considered destroyed painting by Leonardo da Vinci. It was Leonardo’s biggest piece of painting, measures two and a half meters high by two meters wide. All the documents and sketches and copies in that period expressed the breathtaking beauty of the painting. The painting was finished around 1508, depicted a nude standing Leda cuddling the Swan, with the two sets of infant twins and their huge broken egg-shells. It was believed that the painting was taken to France. 
An Italian scholar Cassiano de Pozzo described the painting he saw in Fontainebleau in 1625 as: “A standing figure of Leda almost entirely naked, with the swan at he at her and two eggs, from whose broken shells come forth four babies. This work, although somewhat dry in style, is exquisitely finished, especially in the woman’s breast, and for the rest of the landscape and the plant life are rendered with the greatest diligence. Unfortunately the picture is in a bad state because it is done on three long panels which have split apart and broken off a certain amount of paint.” The original Leda and the Swan is lost, it is now known for many copies. But we do hope that this masterpiece would show up some day.

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