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 about the disconnection of women in society and challenges societal expectations of childbirth. Several references to the myth are presented in novels by Angela Carter, including "Nights at the Circus" and "The Magic Toyshop". In the latter novel, the myth is brought to life in the form of a performance in which a frightened young girl is forced to act as Leda in accompaniment with a large mechanical swan. There is a reference to Leda and the Swan in Dorothea Benton Frank's book "All Summer Long" published in 2016. A version of the Leda and the Swan story is the