IRRLÆUFER

With the linocut print “Leda and the Swan”, IRRLÆUFER joins a long tradition of artistic exploration of one of the most ambivalent myths of antiquity. The scene depicts the moment of union between the mortal Leda and the god Zeus, who approaches her in the form of a swan—a depiction full of tension between sensuality, power, and encroachment.

The composition of the image is clearly inspired by the famous, now-lost depiction by Leonardo da Vinci, as preserved, among other things, in Peter Paul Rubens’s copy in the Galerie Alte Meister. It was there that IRRLÆUFER first encountered the motif—and fell in love with the image’s concept, its composition, its dynamism, and its erotic charge. This personal fascination became the impetus to approach the motif himself in the medium of linocut.

In her execution, IRRLÆUFER not only adopts the classical pose, but also transforms it into a raw, almost archaic formal language through the technique of linocut. The clear black and white contrasts and the rough lines of the cut lend the scene an urgency and physicality often softened by color and soft focus in Baroque paintings.

This interpretation is less idealizing than confrontational: the mythological violence remains palpable, the flesh is present, the moment unvarnished. Thus, the motif is not only cited but also questioned—a commentary on art history as well as a testament to the individual’s devotion to her paintings.

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