Leda and the Swan (Michelangelo) Francis I of France, who later sent it to the Palace of Fontainebleau. The best known copy is attributed to Rosso Fiorentino and hangs in the National Gallery in London, with others in the Gemäldegalerie (Dresden), the Gemäldegalerie (Berlin) and the Correr Museum in Venice. The Casa Buonarroti in Florence holds not only a copy but also a preparatory drawing of Leda's head, held to be by Michelangelo himself. There are also several prints of the work, the most faithful of which is thought to be the one by Nicolas Béatrizet, which also shows Castor and Pollux. Leda and the
Leda and the Swan (Peter Paul Rubens) Leda and the Swan (Peter Paul Rubens) Leda and the Swan, by Peter Paul Rubens, who painted two versions of this subject. The first was completed in 1601 and the second in 1602. Rubens was heavily influenced by Michelangelo. He was introduced to his work on his journey to Italy. Rubens decided to go to Rome to make copies of paintings and further his studies of Italian art from the leading Italian artists of the previous century, later termed the Renaissance. In Rome, he encountered Michelangelo’s version of "Leda and the Swan". Even though Michelangelo’s version does not exist today,