Le Cygne

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Linus Borgo’s Le Cygne is inspired by many different stories and myths. Certainly, one strong reference is the Greek myth of Leda and the Swan, in which Zeus takes the form of a swan to seduce Leda, the Queen of Sparta (or to rape her, depending on the telling). While the myth gained popularity during the Italian Renaissance in significant part because of its erotic potential and because it was more permissible to depict a woman copulating with a swan rather than a human, Borgo drew particular inspiration from an 18th-century depiction of the tale in marble sculpture by the Italian artist Emanuele Caroni, a work with rather different qualities. Caroni’s sculpture stands out to Borgo in its depiction of Leda as what the artist (quite reasonably) interprets to be a young boy, whose relationship to the animal appears to be more affectionate than erotic. In Le Cygne, Borgo duplicates Caroni’s posing but replaces this male figure with himself intertwined with the swan, giving the myth’s theme of transformation visual form and lending it resonance on levels both personal and fantastical. Through the prominent addition of a toe shoe, Borgo also references classical music and ballet—Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” and, especially, a piece composed by Camille Saint-Saëns, from which the painting’s title derives. Borgo indeed listened to Saint-Saëns’ composition on loop throughout the entire production of his painting. Broadly, Le Cygne offers a characteristically compelling and coherent presentation of Borgo’s interests in the explanatory capacity of classical mythology, the possibility of communion with animals and the natural world, and the productive potential of hybridity and transformation, all through an image that is deeply and forthrightly personal.