Leda and the Swan, fragment

Roman art

This fragment was presumably unearthed during the 1833 excavations carried out at the Borghese estate in Mentana; it is mentioned in the Villa for the first time by Nibby in 1841 as a decoration of the Portico. All that is left of the original sculpture is the lower part of Leda’s legs from the knee down, the rock supporting her, the stool, and the oval plinth. This is quite likely a late Severian period replica of the fourth century BCE work attributed to the sculptor Timotheus. Another sculpture with the same subject but still intact (inv. CVIIC) is exhibited in Room 6 of the Galleria Borghese. 

Object details

Commentary

There is indeed a story that Zeus flew to my mother Leda,  

taking the form of a bird, a swan, 

which accomplished the deceitful union,  

fleeing the pursuit of an eagle 

(Euripides, Helen vv. 17–21) 

Our fragment still preserves the lower part of Leda’s figure: the legs from the knee down, the rock against which she was leaning, the stool under her left foot and the oval plinth. The statue most likely showed the young queen in the act of welcoming Zeus into her lap in the shape of a swan. The rock against which the figure was propped is partially preserved; the figure itself presumably wore a very light chiton, or tunic, and a himation, or cape. This depiction might be the reworking of a fourth century BCE original attributed to the sculptor Timotheus of which there are many known replicas. An intact sculpture based on the same ichnographic model is exhibited in Room 6 of the Galleria Borghese (inv. CVIIC). An analogous replica dated to the Hadrianic period is preserved in the Musei Capitolini (inv. no. 302; Dalli Regoli, Nanni, Natali 2001, p. 90). The Borghese fragment apparently comes from the dig carried out at the Borghese estate in Mentana in 1833, particularly in the vicinity of the Cappella del Romitorio: ‘Remains of a small statue from the knee down with drapery’ (Archivio di Stato, Rome, Camerlengato II, tit. IV, b. 204, fasc. 1219: Pala 1976, p. 44). Its presence in Villa Borghese is cited between 1832 and 1893, located in the Portico on a funerary altar dedicated to Spendon (Nibby 1841, p. 909, no. 7; Venturi 1893, p. 9); in 1987 it is mentioned in the basement (Moreno, Sforzini 1981, p. 350).  

Rieche studied this work in 1978 and considered it a late Severan period replica, datable to the third century CE, mainly based on the stylistic observation of the folds of the drapery, stiffer on the right-hand side (Rieche 1978, p. 29, no. 24, pl. 27). 

Giulia Ciccarello