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2146 of Roman

2146

Lot No.2146. Roman bronze applique with design of Leda and the Swan. 32mm.

$ 225. Leda and the Swan is the story of how Jupiter changed himself into a swan in order to seduce the nymph Leda, mother of Castor and Pollux. It is a very popolar subject for artists down to our own time. Do a web search for Leda and swan and you will find many paintings of this scene by Michaelangelo and others. Leda and the Swan, a peom by Yeats:

A SUDDEN blow: the great wings beating still Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill, He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.

How can those terrified vague fingers push The feathered glory from her loosening thighs? And how can body, laid in that white rush, But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?

A shudder in the loins engenders there The broken wall, the burning roof and tower And Agamemnon dead.

Being so caught up, So mastered by the brute blood of the air, Did she put on his knowledge with his power Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?