レダと白鳥

Leonardo worked on a Leda for years in the early 1500s, first kneeling, then standing beside the swan with her children hatching at her feet. The finished painting was seen at the French royal palace of Fontainebleau and then vanished, last recorded in 1625 and probably destroyed on purpose. What we have are his own preparatory drawings and later copies by other hands. The sheet in Rotterdam is one of those studies from Leonardo's hand, chalk and ink working out how a body twists as it kneels.