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''Kneeling Leda with Her Children'' is a 16th-century painting by
''Kneeling Leda with Her Children'' is a 16th-century painting by Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...
's pupil Giampietrino
Giampietrino, probably Giovanni Pietro Rizzoli (active 1495–1549), was a north Italian painter of the Lombard school and Leonardo's circle, succinctly characterized by S. J. Freedberg as an "exploiter of Leonardo's repertory."Freedberg, 1993: ...
. It is now in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (Kassel)
The Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister is an art gallery housed in the Schloss Wilhelmshöhe in Kassel in Germany. It is based on the collection of William VIII, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel.
Works from the Gallery of the Old Masters
File:Rembrandt-se ...
.
Description
It is based on sketches for Leonardo's own ''Leda and the Swan
Leda and the Swan is a story and subject in art from Greek mythology in which the god Zeus, in the form of a swan, seduces or rapes Leda. According to later Greek mythology, Leda bore Helen and Polydeuces, children of Zeus, while at the sa ...
'', now in the collections of Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history.
The original cast ...
, the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Municipal Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen () is an art museum in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The name of the museum is derived from the two most important collectors of Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans and Daniël George van Beuningen. It is located at ...
, in Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...
, and Chatsworth House
Chatsworth House is a stately home in the Derbyshire Dales, north-east of Bakewell and west of Chesterfield, Derbyshire, Chesterfield, England. The seat of the Duke of Devonshire, it has belonged to the House of Cavendish, Cavendish family sin ...
.
The beautiful princess Leda
Leda may refer to:
Mythology
* Leda (mythology), queen of Sparta and mother of Helen of Troy in Greek mythology
Places
* Leda, Western Australia, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia
* Leda makeshift settlement, Bangladesh, a refugee camp ...
is seduced by Zeus who transformed himself to a magnificent swan. On the same night, Leda would also sleep with her husband, King Tyndareus
In Greek mythology, Tyndareus (; Ancient Greek: Τυνδάρεος, ''Tundáreos''; Attic: Τυνδάρεως, ''Tundáreōs''; ) was a Spartan king.
Family
Tyndareus was the son of Oebalus (or Perieres) and Gorgophone (or Bateia). He married ...
of Sparta. The result is a pair of twins, the beautiful Helen
Helen may refer to:
People
* Helen of Troy, in Greek mythology, the most beautiful woman in the world
* Helen (actress) (born 1938), Indian actress
* Helen (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name)
Places
* Helen, ...
and the immortal Pollux as children of Zeus, Clytemnestra
Clytemnestra (; grc-gre, Κλυταιμνήστρα, ''Klytaimnḗstrā'', ), in Greek mythology, was the wife of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, and the twin sister of Helen of Troy. In Aeschylus' ''Oresteia'', she murders Agamemnon – said by Eu ...
and the mortal Castor as offspring of Tyndareus. While Giampietrino omitted the swan in the Kassel painting, the eggshells betray the divine liaison.
Infrared spectroscopy
Infrared spectroscopy (IR spectroscopy or vibrational spectroscopy) is the measurement of the interaction of infrared radiation with matter by absorption, emission, or reflection. It is used to study and identify chemical substances or function ...
has revealed two different underdrawings: one underdrawing corresponding with the figure of Leda and her children, and a second one, using the spolvero technique, exactly repeating '' The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne'' of the Louvre. This states the existence of an original cartoon by Leonardo accessible to his pupil Giampietrino. If Giampietrino also used a cartoon of the Leda by his master is still unknown. A probable model could have been the antique statue of the Crouching Venus
:''This article discusses the type itself: see links within it for specific instances of the type.''
The ''Crouching Venus'' is a Hellenistic model of Venus surprised at her bath. Venus crouches with her right knee close to the ground, turns he ...
. The figurative parts with their monumental and dominant appearance are painted in 1512/1520 by Giampietrino. The Nordic landscape with its rich details is attributed to the landscape painter Cesare Bernazzano, who also collaborated with other pupils of Leonardo.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as trea ...
admired the painting in Kassel in 1779, 1783, 1792 and 1801 considering it an original Leonardo painting.
Provenance
William VIII, landgrave of Hesse-Kassel acquired the painting in 1756 at a Paris auction as a depiction of Caritas by Leonardo da Vinci, because one of the children and the eggshells were overpainted. In 1806, in theCoalition Wars
The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, sometimes called the Great French War, were a series of conflicts between the French and several European monarchies between 1792 and 1815. They encompass first the French Revolutionary Wars agains ...
it was stored by William I
William I; ang, WillelmI (Bates ''William the Conqueror'' p. 33– 9 September 1087), usually known as William the Conqueror and sometimes William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087 ...
in the Sababurg
The Sababurg, first called the Zappenburg, then Zapfenburg and today, after the Brothers Grimm fairy tale Sleeping Beauty Castle (german: Dornröschenschloss), is the ruin of a hill castle in the legendary Reinhardswald, a forested upland th ...
to hide it from the advancing Grande Armée
''La Grande Armée'' (; ) was the main military component of the French Imperial Army commanded by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte during the Napoleonic Wars. From 1804 to 1808, it won a series of military victories that allowed the French Empi ...
. Yet the hideout was revealed and general Joseph Lagrange
Joseph-Louis Lagrange (born Giuseppe Luigi LagrangiaJoséphine. It was lost in the chaos of war and came instead on the French art market. It subsequently came to light in a Parisian private collection in 1821. The Mannheim art dealer Artaria offered it to William I who strictly refused to rebuy stolen works of his art collection.
Through mediation of the Belgian painter and art dealer Pierre Joseph Lafontaine it joined the art collection of King William II in
The Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...
. After his death the painting came in the possession of his brother Prince Frederick of Orange-Nassau and thereupon to the house of Nassau-Weilburg in Neuwied
Neuwied () is a town in the north of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, capital of the District of Neuwied. Neuwied lies on the east bank of the Rhine, 12 km northwest of Koblenz, on the railway from Frankfurt am Main to Cologne. Th ...
. In 1940 it was acquired for 150.000 Reichsmark{{Cite web, url=https://www.fold3.com/image/270008413, title=Historical Military Records by Gauleiter
A ''Gauleiter'' () was a regional leader of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) who served as the head of a ''Administrative divisions of Nazi Germany, Gau'' or ''Reichsgau''. ''Gauleiter'' was the third-highest Ranks and insignia of the Nazi Party, rank in ...
Erich Koch
Erich Koch (19 June 1896 – 12 November 1986) was a ''Gauleiter'' of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in East Prussia from 1 October 1928 until 1945. Between 1941 and 1945 he was Chief of Civil Administration (''Chef der Zivilverwaltung'') of Bezirk ...
as a gift to Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German politician, military leader and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which ruled Germany from 1933 to 1 ...
who already possessed a large art collection of nudes of the Gothic and Renaissance period in Carinhall. In 1943 he organised its storage in the Salzbergwerk Altaussee in Styria
Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...
.
After the end of the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
the ''Leda'' was brought to the Central Collecting Point in Munich and in 1962 reacquired by the Land Hesse
Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major histor ...
.
Sources
Giampietrino
Giampietrino, probably Giovanni Pietro Rizzoli (active 1495–1549), was a north Italian painter of the Lombard school and Leonardo's circle, succinctly characterized by S. J. Freedberg as an "exploiter of Leonardo's repertory."Freedberg, 1993: ...
category:Paintings of children