[37] Refers to Lord Ashburton's death.
[38] This picture illustrates the verses in the Paradiso:—
"Thou shalt prove
How salt the savour is of others' bread;
How hard the passage, to descend and climb
By others' stairs. But that shall gall thee most
Will be the worthless and vile company
With whom thou must be thrown into the straits,
For all ungrateful, impious all and mad
Shall turn against thee."
"Dante, in fulfilment of this prophecy, is seen descending the palace stairs of the Can Grande, at Verona, during his exile. He is dressed in sober grey and drab clothes, and contrasts strongly in his ascetic and suffering aspect with the gay revellers about him. The people are preparing for a festival, and splendidly and fantastically robed, some bringing wreaths of flowers. Bowing with mock reverence, a jester gibes at Dante. An indolent sentinel is seated at the porch, and looks on unconcernedly, his spear lying across his breast. A young man, probably acquainted with the writings of Dante, sympathises with him. In the centre and just before the feet of Dante, is a beautiful child, brilliantly dressed and crowned with flowers, and dragging along the floor a garland of bay leaves and flowers, while looking earnestly and innocently in the poet's face. Next come a pair of lovers, the lady looking at Dante with attention, the man heedless. The last wears a vest embroidered with eyes like those in a peacock's tail. A priest and a noble descend the stairs behind, jeering at Dante."—Athenæum, April 1864.
The following expresses the admiration of a brother artist, Richard Doyle, for the exiled "Dante":—
54 Clifton Gardens, Maida Hill,
April 5, 1864.
My dear Leighton,—I feel so awkward whenever I attempt to praise a man's works to his face, and I felt that you, yesterday, were so likely to be bored with the repetition of similar speeches from your large influx of visitors, that at the moment of my going I could not bring myself to say what I wished to say—how much I liked your pictures. To-day, however, when "Dante" and "Orpheus," and the music and drawing parties are before my mind as vividly as they were yesterday before my eyes in your studio, I cannot resist sending you a few lines to say what pleasure my visit gave me, although I was "without words."
The "Dante" seemed to me a very impressive picture, and I think one of the most important as well as most successful of your works, historical in a higher sense than the mere representation of an event—an illustration of the man and the time. I could mention many of the figures that especially pleased me, but, for beauty, can only single out that most delightful little child in the foreground, toddling at the feet of Dante, laden with flowers, the childhood and innocence of whose whole figure and face, although we do not see the face, contrasts so beautifully with the worn, ascetic, melancholy Poet. I think these two are a poem in themselves.
The lady in the "drawing lesson" struck me as a charming figure, so graceful, and the painting of her dress as a perfect piece of work. The lady leaning over the instrument in the "music" ("Golden Hours") subject is also a great favourite of mine.
The "Orpheus," although there is a great deal to admire in it, I don't think I liked so well as the others. Perhaps it is that the classic subject does not come home to me, but I say this doubtingly, feeling that it is a picture that would very likely grow upon me.