Artist: Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475 Caprese – 1564 Roma)
Date: 1530
Dimensions: True dimensions unknown
Medium: Tempera on canvas
Location: Bibliothèque-Musée de l’Opéra National de Paris

Leda and the Swan is a story from Greek mythology in which the god Zeus, in the form of a swan seduces or rapes Leda. Unfortunately, this piece is a lost painting by Michelangelo, its only surviving in copies and fragments of sketches so we can’t be sure what the original completed painting looks like. Michelangelo didn’t paint much women in his lifetime but if he did most if not all were women out of Greek-mythology