A Large Gold Mounted Coral Signet Ring Depicting ‘Leda and The Swan’

Date: 1850

Period: 1800-1900

Origin: France

Medium: gold, Coral

Dimension: 3 x 3 x 2.2 cm (1¹/₈ x 1¹/₈ x 0⁷/₈ inches)

Provenance: Ex Private Irish collection

Literature: ‘Leda and the Swan’ is both a story and subject in art from Greek mythology in which the God Zeus, in the form of a Swan, seduces or rapes Leda. The subject was rarely seen in large scale sculpture in antiquity, however small scale depictions such as cameos, engraved gems, rings and terracotta oil lamps are well represented. 
     A book published in Venice, in 1499, ‘Hypnerotomachia Poliphili’ illustrates the earliest known explicit Renaissance depiction in a ‘woodcut’. Paradoxically it was considered more acceptable to depict a woman in the act of copulation with a swan than a man. 
     The subject since Renaissance has never been abandoned and continues into the 20th century with Cy Twombly’s abstract version of 1962, which was sold at Christies May 2017 Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale for $52.9 million dollars.