Leda and The Swan Painting History

Leda and the Swan da Vinci  –  Michelangelo   – Veronesse.  –  Rubens. –  Boucher  – Delacroix     is a story and subject in art from Greek mythology in which the god Zeus, or Jupiter, in the Roman version, in the form of a swan, seduces or rapes Leda,  the daughter of the King of Aetolia, and married to the Spartan King Tyndareus. According to later Greek mythology, Leda bore Helen and Polydeuces, children of Zeus, while at the same time bearing Castor and …

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Party of Lenaia

Party of Lenaia on Ancient Greece The Leneas were celebrated in Attica in the month of Gamelion, between the current January and February, possibly between the days 12 to 19 or 21. They are relevant to the literature because in them, as in the Urban Dionysias, dramatic competitions of tragedy and comedy took place, organized by the archon basileus. In Aristophanes’s The Frogs, there are several incidental allusions to them. Religious festivals were part of the tourist traffic in Ancient …

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Las Meninas or The Ladies-in-waiting, 1656 Velazquez Painting

Las Meninas or ‘The Ladies-in-waiting’ 1656 painting in the Museo del Prado in Madrid Las Meninas is one of the most original and revolutionary works in art history. When Diego Velázquez began to paint this painting in 1655, he did not do it thinking of the public exhibition that he has today, but for private contemplation and delight. The work was intended for the private summer office of King Felipe IV of Spain, in the old Alcazar of Madrid.   …

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