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 (Correggio) and extraordinary balance between naturalist rendering and poetic transfiguration. Correggio had made a study of Michelangelo's "Leda and the Swan". According to Vasari's "Lives of the Artists", the "Leda" and a "Venus" (i.e. "Danaë") were commissioned by Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua as a gift for Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. This is supported by the theory that Jupiter was flying out of the right hand side of "Leda" in swan form and into the left hand side of "Danaë" in golden-shower form. However, one more recent study suggests that all the paintings in the "amori di Giove" series