Michelangelo painted Leda and the Swan for Alfonso I d’Este, Duke of Ferrara. The lost work shows Jupiter disguised as a swan with the reclining Leda, drawing on the classical myth of their union.
Michelangelo completed the tempera painting around 1530, after the duke renewed a promise first made during a visit to Rome. The work later travelled to France through Michelangelo’s assistant Antonio Mini and entered the royal collection.
The original and cartoon disappeared, probably after objections to the painting’s erotic subject. Its composition is therefore known mainly through copies and adaptations, including versions in London, Dresden, Berlin, and Florence. It should not be confused with Correggio’s separate, surviving Leda and the Swan.