In this work, Wald also cited Greek characters and myths which had been charged with erotic symbolism. Leda and the Swan is a classic subject of its kind in which Zeus came to Leda in the form of a swan. Here, the muse, a birdlike creature, hovers on the face of a reclining figure which forms a receptacle, echoed in her vessel-like wings. 

This work is instilled with qualities of the ‘surrealist object’. It was a key practice that developed within the Surrealism movement in the 1920s. Surrealists sought to channel the unconscious as a means to unlock the power of the imagination, and the art was characterised by fantastical imagery. The surrealist object was closely related to Sigmund Freud’s concept of the ‘fetish’. The ordinary object becomes a fetish because we project our desire upon it. The selection of object is random and the choice is not as significant as the meaning the human psychology gives to it.  The fetish is always a substitute for something else and always has a sexual content.