STUDY FOR FIGURE IN "THE ARTS OF WAR,"
Victoria and Albert Museum. 1872
Leighton House Collection[ToList]
It is thought by some that the design would have carried out the feeling of absolute repose better had the lower curves of the round aperture behind the figures been absent—these lines rather suggesting horns springing up on either side of the group. The end of the foot of the sitting figure being cut off by the bottom line of the picture has also a somewhat uncomfortable effect. The same thing occurs in the picture "Greek Girl Dancing," producing the feeling that the canvas has run short. These criticisms, however, only refer to minor matters. "Summer Moon" is an exquisitely beautiful picture, one which will ever sustain the great reputation of its creator. "A Condottiere" and the monochrome version of "The Industrial Arts of War" (76 × 177 in.), exhibited at the South Kensington International Exhibition the same year, strikingly contrast in character with "Summer Moon." If the one is notable for gentle, womanly grace and a sense of relaxation induced by slumber, "A Condottiere" is full of verve and virile power,[44] and in the design for "The Industrial Arts of War" all is action and movement. Leighton made many studies for all his principal pictures, but the finest group of sketches are certainly those made for mural decorations. Being executed under more difficult conditions than the easel pictures, doubtless he felt more preparation for frescoes was required. The studies in Leighton House for the "Arts of War," "Arts of Peace," two friezes, "Music," "The Dance," "And the Sea gave up the Dead that were in it," the painted decoration for the ceiling of a music room, "Phœnicians Bartering with Britons," are the most completely worked out and powerful studies in the collection. In the following year, 1873, the companion lunette in monochrome, "The Industrial Arts of Peace," was exhibited at the Royal Academy. This design is more comfortably fitted into its space than that of the "Arts of War," as the whole is lifted up from the bottom line of the lunette, and no part of the figures is cut off (as in the case of the men's feet and the drapery of the otherwise most beautiful group of women on the left hand in the "Arts of War"). "Weaving the Wreath," a small picture of lovely colour and subtle technique, appeared in 1873, and in 1874 three of the most remarkable of Leighton's pictures of single figures. "In a Moorish Garden: a Dream of Granada" the charming child "Cleobouline" reappears in an Eastern turban and drapery, holding a copper vessel and followed by two peacocks, walking across a square canvas filled in by a background of the delightful garden at Generalife at Granada. "The Antique Juggling Girl" is one of the best examples in Leighton's work of his "ardent passion for colour," and his perfect mastery in painting the beauty of an undraped figure. The form of the torso recalls the exquisite fragment from the Naples Museum.[45] The actual painting, however, exemplifies the truth of Leighton's very notable words written to Steinle, "What reveals true knowledge of form is a powerful, organic, refined finish of modelling full of feeling and knowledge—and that is the affair of the brush." The principal scheme of colour is effectively carried throughout the picture—in the golden flesh tint against the ivory-white of the parchment banner hung as a screen background, the crown of dark ivy leaves and the golden balls telling out as notes of a deeper tone; the crinkled folds of white drapery resting on the darker mass, the full tawny browns and yellows of the leopard skins on which the figure stands making a dark, luminous basis, the metal jar and the dense foliage of deep verdant green enriched by the orange of the fruit springing up and continuing the dark framework of the central design. This picture is a very original work, and should, I think, be placed very high in the rank of Leighton's achievements. "Clytemnestra from the battlements of Argos watches for the beacon fires which are to announce the return of Agamemnon" is, in every sense, a contrast to the "Antique Juggling Girl." The figure is powerful and heavily draped, the drapery being superb, and the limbs those which might truly overpower even Agamemnon.[46]
"ANTIQUE JUGGLING GIRL." 1874
By permission of Mr. George Hodges[ToList]
"CLYTEMNESTRA WATCHES FROM THE BATTLEMENTS OF ARGOS FOR THE BEACON
FIRES WHICH ARE TO ANNOUNCE THE RETURN OF AGAMEMNON." 1874
Leighton House Collection[ToList]
