Our Palladian E-Bikes: Leda

One of our e-Bikes is called Leda.

Greek mythological figure and wife of Tindaro. King of Sparta and mother of the Dioscuri.

Leda aroused the interest of none other than Zeus, who, in order to have her attention and seduce her, transformed himself into a magnificent swan. Leda then generated an egg from which Helen and Pollux were born.

Leda has always inspired art in all its forms: famous is the pictorial presentation by Leonardo da Vinci in a very rare case of mythological subject, but equally noteworthy is that of Correggio, dated around 1530 and preserved at the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin.

In the Renaissance, however, also Michelangelo wanted to portray the figure of Leda to keep faith with an ancient promise made to Duke Alfonso I d'Este. Perhaps because of an argument betwwen Buonarroti and a messenger of the Duke, he refused to deliver the work and the same after several transfers ended up thanks to Mini, a pupil of Michelangelo, in France at the court of Francis I, although it was soon lost.

Copies of the work can also be seen at the Museo Correr in Venice, while a study of the painting is kept at Casa Buonarroti, in Florence.

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