MICHELANGELO Buonarroti
(b. 1475, Caprese, d. 1564, Roma)

Leda and the Swan

1535-60
Oil on canvas, 105 x 135 cm
National Gallery, London

This painting is an early copy of a lost original by Michelangelo, for which several autograph drawings survive. The original panel survived in the French Royal collection until the seventeenth century when Anne of Austria, then queen mother, apparently took offence to its licentiousness and ordered it burnt.