Leonardo da Vinci’s Leda and the Swan – one of the jewels of the famed Devonshire Collection – is to be included at Sotheby’s Treasures from Chatsworth exhibition in New York this summer.
Created by Leonardo c1506 in Florence or Milan circa1506 – while he was working on the Mona Lisa – Leda and the Swan is a mythological preparatory drawing in pen, ink and wash. The work represents one of Da Vinci’s earliest designs for a composition of Leda, wife of the King of Sparta, and Jupiter, who has taken the form of a swan to seduce her. Hatching from the eggs at Leda’s feet are their offspring: the twins, Helen (later Helen of Troy) and Clytemnestra, and Castor and Pollux. The drawing was acquired by the Devonshire collection in the first half of the 18th century. The painting for which the drawing served as a study did not survive.
More than 40 masterworks have been selected for the Treasures from Chatsworth exhibition to represent the remarkable breadth of the Devonshire Collection – fine art from Rembrandt van Rijn to Lucian Freud, furniture and decorative objects from the 16th century to 21st-century design, and exceptional jewels, costumes, and archive materials commemorating historic occasions. It will run from June 28 to September 18 at Sotheby’s galleries at 1334 York Avenue, New York.
