Leda And The Swan, Workshop of Pietro Liberi (1605 - 1687)

Pietro Liberi (Padua 1605 - Venice 1687) workshop
Leda and the Swan (Literary source: Ovid's Metamorphoses, book VI)

Oil on canvas
109 x 94 cm. - framed 137 x 121 cm.

The fascinating painting we propose here, probably originally intended to decorate the rooms of a noble residence, depicts the beautiful Leda, Queen of Sparta and wife of King Tyndareus, in the company of a chubby Love, who seems to warn her of the deception Zeus is about to fall into.

According to the myth, in fact, Zeus, the king of the gods, fell madly in love with Leda and decided to conquer her, but in order to approach her without arousing suspicion, he took the form of a magnificent swan, taking advantage of her vulnerability while she was resting on the banks of the river Eurota.

The queen, struck by the swan's beauty, welcomed it into her arms, and ended up being seduced by Zeus, who joined her: from the encounter, desired by both parties, an egg was born, from which the children Helen and Pollux were born.

Within the sphere of Greek mythology, Leda and the swan is undoubtedly one of the most fascinating stories, inspiring many artists from the Renaissance onwards with depictions charged with eros, where the fusion of the human and the divine was manifested in sensual and ambiguous forms.

In the past, this subject was also attributed a great symbolic value, often identified as an allegory of carnal love, and more specifically, the success of this iconography was linked to the shifted image of the mating between man and woman, covered by the allegory of myth.

A touch of poetry is the detail of the swan's head approaching, suggesting a sort of act of seduction, resting its beak on her lips. The depiction of the naked body also amplifies the intense and sensual atmosphere, half-covered by the animal's long neck.

Finally, as far as attribution analysis is concerned, in our opinion this is a splendid work attributable to the workshop of the Paduan painter Pietro Liberi (Padua, 1605-Venice, 1687), one of the greatest exponents of Baroque art in Italy, a capable painter who was a disciple of Padovanino as well as the father of another important painter and epigone, Marco Liberi.

Liberi produced important fresco cycles as well as altarpieces and numerous easel paintings of a profane nature; the latter are particularly similar to the one in question and much sought after and appreciated by contemporary collectors for their elegantly sensual and erotic themes.

With regard to the work under examination, there are numerous analogies with other compositions by Pietro Liberi. These include, for example, Venus with Cupid (Christie's Milan 26 May 2009, imm.1), Venus and Cupid (Private Collection, Paris, imm.2), Liberi Pietro, Venus disarms Cupid Private Collection, Paris, imm.3), Liberi Pietro, Juno (Private Collection, imm.4).

Source: Zeri Foundation Photo Library