Leda and the Swan (Michelangelo) to spend in hiding. It was a square work in tempera, representing Jupiter as a swan making love to a reclining Leda (based on a composition from ancient Roman gems and seals), an egg and Castor and Pollux as children. It was completed by mid-October 1530 but Alfonso described it as a "little thing" in Michelangelo's hearing and so he refused to hand it over. The work and some of the preparatory drawings were in fact acquired (either as a purchase or a gift) by Antonio Mini, who took it to France in 1531. In 1532 he left it to
Leda and the Swan (Copenhagen) Leda and the Swan (Copenhagen) A Leda and the Swan statue, depicting the classical myth of Leda and the Swan, was from 1611 to 1795 a major landmark in Copenhagen, Denmark. The statue topped a tall column located just off the entrance to the naval Arsenal Harbour. The monument was built in 1611 during the reign of King Christian IV. Lauritz de Thurah's "Den Danske Vitruvius" (1st volume, 1746) incorrectly states that the statue was brought home from Kalmar as war loot. The monument was built on an artificial islet with walled sides, on a shallow-watered sandbar known as the