Kneeling Leda with Her Children is a 16th-century painting byLeonardo da Vinci's pupilGiampietrino. It is now in theGemäldegalerie Alte Meister (Kassel).
It is based on sketches for Leonardo's ownLeda and the Swan, now in the collections ofWindsor Castle, theMuseum Boijmans Van Beuningen, inRotterdam, andChatsworth House.
The beautiful princessLeda is seduced by Zeus who transformed himself to a magnificent swan. On the same night, Leda would also sleep with her husband, KingTyndareus of Sparta. The result is a pair of twins, the beautifulHelen and the immortalPollux as children of Zeus,Clytemnestra and the mortalCastor as offspring of Tyndareus. While Giampietrino omitted the swan in the Kassel painting, the eggshells betray the divine liaison.
Infrared spectroscopy has revealed two different underdrawings: one underdrawing corresponding with the figure of Leda and her children, and a second one, using the spolvero technique, exactly repeatingThe Virgin and Child with Saint Anne of the Louvre. This states the existence of an original cartoon by Leonardo accessible to his pupil Giampietrino. If Giampietrino also used a cartoon of the Leda by his master is still unknown. A probable model could have been the antique statue of theCrouching Venus. The figurative parts with their monumental and dominant appearance are painted in 1512/1520 by Giampietrino. The Nordic landscape with its rich details is attributed to the landscape painterCesare Bernazzano, who also collaborated with other pupils of Leonardo.[1]
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe admired the painting in Kassel in 1779, 1783, 1792 and 1801 considering it an original Leonardo painting.
William VIII, landgrave of Hesse-Kassel acquired the painting in 1756 at a Paris auction as a depiction ofCaritas by Leonardo da Vinci, because one of the children and the eggshells were overpainted. In 1806, in theCoalition Wars it was stored byWilliam I in theSababurg to hide it from the advancingGrande Armée. Yet the hideout was revealed and generalJoseph Lagrange seized it as loot. The painting would never reach its final destination,Château de Malmaison, home of the EmpressJoséphine. It was lost in the chaos of war and came instead on the French art market. It subsequently came to light in a Parisian private collection in 1821. The Mannheim art dealer Artaria offered it to William I who strictly refused to rebuy stolen works of his art collection.
Through mediation of the Belgian painter and art dealerPierre Joseph Lafontaine it joined the art collection of KingWilliam II inThe Hague. After his death the painting came in the possession of his brotherPrince Frederick of Orange-Nassau[2] and thereupon to the house of Nassau-Weilburg inNeuwied. In 1940 it was acquired for 150.000 Reichsmark[3] byGauleiterErich Koch as a gift toHermann Göring who already possessed a large art collection of nudes of the Gothic and Renaissance period inCarinhall. In 1943 he organised its storage in the Salzbergwerk Altaussee inStyria.
After the end of theSecond World War theLeda was brought to theCentral Collecting Point in Munich and in 1962 reacquired by the LandHesse.