Editing Leda and the Swan (section)

==Eroticism==
[[Image:Leda and Zeus (Swan).jpg|thumb|''Leda and the Swan'', Roman marble possibly reflecting a lost work by [[Timotheus (sculptor)|Timotheos]] from the 300s BCE. More than two dozen examples of this statue survive. restored ([[Prado]])]]

The historian [[Procopius]] claims, in his Secret History, that the [[List of Roman and Byzantine empresses|Roman Empress]] [[Theodora (wife of Justinian I)|Theodora]] acted in a reproduction of this particular myth at some point in her youth in the early sixth century CE prior to her becoming the empress. This account is heavily disputed for the biases Roman aristocrats including Procopius had towards the role of women and the reputation of actresses and sex workers at the time.

The subject undoubtedly owed its 16th-century popularity to the paradox that it was considered more acceptable to depict a woman in the act of copulation with a swan than with a man. The earliest depictions show the pair love-making with some explicitness—more so than in any depictions of a human pair made by artists of high quality in the same period.<ref>Bull p 167</ref>

The fate of the erotic album ''[[I Modi]]'' some years later shows why this was so. The theme remained a dangerous one in the Renaissance, as the fates of the three best known paintings on the subject demonstrate. The earliest depictions were all in the more private medium of the [[old master print]], and mostly from Venice.  They were often based on the extremely brief account in the ''Metamorphoses'' of [[Ovid]] (who does not imply a rape), though [[Lorenzo de' Medici]] had both a Roman sarcophagus and an [[engraved gems|antique carved gem]] of the subject, both with reclining Ledas.<ref>Bull p167</ref>

The earliest known explicit Renaissance depiction is one of the many [[woodcut]] illustrations to ''[[Hypnerotomachia Poliphili]]'', a book published in [[Venice]] in 1499. This shows Leda and the Swan making love with gusto, despite being on top of a triumphal car, being pulled along and surrounded by a considerable crowd.<ref>[http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-books/HP/hyp166.htm Page 166 – Hypnerotomachia Poliphili<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> An engraving dating to 1503 at the latest, by [[Giovanni Battista Palumba]], also shows the couple in [[coitus]], but in deserted countryside.<ref>[[:File:Palumba leda swan.jpg|Photo of the print]]</ref> Another engraving, certainly from Venice and attributed by many to [[Giulio Campagnola]], shows a love-making scene, but there Leda's attitude is highly ambiguous.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bodkinprints.co.uk/product.php?id=38 |title=Leda and the Swan |publisher=Bodkin Prints |first=Giulio |last=Campagnola |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130413192242/http://www.bodkinprints.co.uk/product.php?id=38 |archive-date=13 April 2013 }}</ref><ref>Not a woodcut, as Bull (p169) wrongly says (see Hind BM catalogue, The Illustrated [[Bartsch]] etc); nor is his view of Leda's expression the only one.</ref> Palumba made another engraving, perhaps in about 1512, presumably influenced by Leonardo's sketches for his earlier composition, showing Leda seated on the ground and playing with her children.<ref>[[:File:Palumba ledafamily.jpg|British Museum copy]]; [http://www.metmuseum.org/special/Poets_Lovers_Heroes/lovers_05_51.623.3.R.asp The Metropolitan Museum of Art – Special Exhibitions: Poets, Lovers, and Heroes in Italian Mythological Prints<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

There were also significant depictions in the smaller decorative arts, also private media. [[Benvenuto Cellini]] made a medallion, now in Vienna, early in his career, and [[Antonio Abondio]] one on the [[obverse]] of a medal celebrating a Roman [[courtesan]].<ref>[http://www.nga.gov.au/international/Catalogue/Detail.cfm?IRN=66251&Orient=Verso Abondio, NGA Washington]</ref>