17 Works, January 2nd. is Piero di Cosimo's day, his art, illustrated with footnotes #259

Cosimo Rosselli  (1439–1507) 

Descent from Mount Sinai, circa 1480

Fresco

Height: 350 cm (11.4 ft) Width: 572 cm (18.7 ft)

Sistine Chapel

In the upper part is Moses kneeling on Mount Sinai, with a sleeping Joshua nearby: he receives the Tables of the Law from Yahweh, who appears in a luminescent cloud, surrounded by angels. In the foreground, on the left, Moses brings the Tables to the Israelites. In the background is camp of tents, with the altar of the golden calf in the middle; the Israelites, spurred by Aaron, are adoring it: the position of some of them, painted from behind, was usually used for negative characters, such as Judas Iscariot in the Last Supper. Once seeing that, Moses, in the center, gets angry and breaks the Tables on the ground. The right background depicts the punishment of the idolatrous and the receiving of the new Tables. Joshua, in the blue and yellow, appears with Moses. More on this painting

Piero di Cosimo (2 January 1462[1] – 12 April 1522), also known as Piero di Lorenzo, was an Italian painter of the Renaissance. He is most famous for the mythological and allegorical subjects he painted in the late Quattrocento; he is said to have abandoned these to return to religious subjects under the influence of Savonarola, the preacher who exercised a huge sway in Florence in the 1490s, and had a similar effect on Botticelli. The High Renaissance style of the new century had little influence on him, and he retained the straightforward realism of his figures, which combines with an often whimsical treatment of his subjects to create the distinctive mood of his works.

Piero di Cosimo, 1462-1521

Battle of Lapiths and Centaurs, c. 1490

Panel, 71 x 260 cm

National Gallery, London

The battle depicted takes place between the Lapiths and the Centaurs at the wedding feast of Pirithous. Pirithous, king of the Lapith, had long clashed with the neighboring Centaurs. To mark his good intentions Pirithous invited the Centaurs to his wedding to Hippodamia. Some of the Centaurs, over-imbibed at the event, and when the bride was presented to greet the guests, she so aroused the intoxicated centaur Eurytion that he leapt up and attempted to carry her away. This led not only to an immediate clash, but to a year-long war, before the defeated Centaurs were expelled from Thessaly to the northwest. More on  the Battle of the Centaurs against the Lapiths

Vasari has many stories of his eccentricity, and the mythological subjects have an individual and quirky fascination. He trained under Cosimo Rosselli, whose daughter he married, and assisted him in his Sistine Chapel frescos.

Piero di Cosimo  (1462–1522)

Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci, c. 1490

Tempera on panel

Height: 570 mm (22.44 in); Width: 420 mm (16.53 in)

Condé Museum

This Florentine painting from the Quattrocento is one of the most famous masterpieces of the Condé museum. Painted around 1490, the portrait known as Simonetta Vespucci has never ceased to intrigue art historians. The young and beautiful mistress of Giuliano de Medici, "the idol of Florence", who posed for Botticelli, died of consumption at the age of twenty-three in 1476 and her lover would have had this portrait painted in memory of her. But it is not certain that we are in the presence of the portrait of Simonetta, because the inscription which names her at the bottom of the painting is perhaps later. Moreover, if this portrait represents Simonetta well, it is then a posthumous portrait, because Piero di Cosimo was only fifteen years old when he died.

It could rather be the Cleopatra with the serpent around her neck. However, the iconography does not correspond to Cleopatra, represented with the serpent biting her breast.

The depiction of a woman with a naked bust is unusual for a 15th century portrait. It can also be an ideal portrait, a Neoplatonic allegory of death, symbolized by the serpent which bites its tail, which leads to beauty. The funeral interpretation of the painting is reinforced by the black clouds and the dead tree which appear in front of Simonetta, on the left, while on the right, the trees have leaves and the sky is blue. More on this painting

The son of a goldsmith, Lorenzo di Piero, Piero was born in Florence and apprenticed under the artist Cosimo Rosseli, from whom he derived his popular name and whom he assisted in the painting of the Sistine Chapel in 1481.

Piero di Cosimo, 1462-1521

The Finding of Vulcan on Lemnos, c. 1495-1505

Oil and tempera on canvas

Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford

Vulcan (Greek Hephaestus) in Greek and Roman mythology was the god of fire, and the blacksmith who forged the weapons of many gods and heroes. He was the educator of the primitive man, and taught him the proper use of fire. He was the son of Jupiter and Juno. He was married to Venus who made a cuckold of him. He was crippled as a result of being thrown down to earth from Olympus by Jupiter in a fit of anger.

When Vulcan was thrown down from Olympus, he landed on the island of Lemnos in the Aegean where he was looked after by the inhabitants. He is shown being helped to his feet by one of a band of nymphs. More on this painting

Piero di Cosimo  (1462–1522)

Vulcan and Aeolus, circa 1490

 (or The Return of New Life to Lemnos)

Tempera and oil on canvas

155.5 × 166.5 cm (61.2 × 65.5 in)

National Gallery of Canada

Inspired by Classical authors, Piero imagined the dawn of civilization, when humanity lived in harmony with Nature. The horse has been tamed, metal-working invented, and men build a primitive house from rough tree trunks. It was painted at a time of fascination with the exotic: the figures’ partial nudity, and the giraffe and camel would have suggested other lands and cultures to Piero’s contemporaries. While the setting is fully conceived, the exact subject remains uncertain, but likely shows the story of Vulcan, the blacksmith god, who taught man craft. Frame: carved wood, painted and partly gilded. Italy, late 16th – early 17th century. More on this painting

For ancient Greeks, the island of Lemnos sacred to Hephaestus, god of metallurgy, who—as he tells himself in Iliad I.590ff—fell on Lemnos when Zeus hurled him headlong out of Olympus. There, he was cared for by the Sinties, according to Iliad, or by Thetis, and there with a Thracian nymph Cabiro (a daughter of Proteus) he fathered a tribe called the Kaberoi. Sacred initiatory rites dedicated to them were performed in the island. Its ancient capital was named Hephaistia in the god's honour. More on Lemnos

In the first phase of his career, Piero was influenced by the Netherlandish naturalism of Hugo van der Goes, whose Portinari Triptych (now at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence) helped to lead the whole of Florentine painting into new channels. From him Cosimo acquired the love of landscape and the intimate knowledge of the growth of flowers and of animal life. The manner of Hugo van der Goes is especially apparent in the Adoration of the Shepherds, at the Berlin Museum.

Piero di Cosimo, 1462-1521

Venus, Mars, and Cupid, c. 1505

Oil on panel

72 x 182 cms | 28 1/4 x 71 1/2 ins

Staatliche Museen, Berlin | Germany

Despite the different datings they have been given the two panels (Death of Procris (See below) , and Venus and Mars) may have formed part of a cycle illustrating themes from ancient mythology. The long shape of the panels suggest that they may have decorated a cassone chest.

Another aspect of Piero's artistic personality is his ability to infuse his subjects with wit and fantasy. The subject matter is sensual in nature, with Cupid nestling beside Venus' breast near a long-eared rabbit, a symbol of sexual excess. The black and white birds down below seem to symbolize the lovers, Venus and an exhausted Mars asleep on the ground.

This panel may have been painted as part of a suite of marital furniture, such as a bedstead, hope chest, or frieze. More on this painting

Piero di Cosimo, 1462-1521

The Death of Procris

Oil on panel

65 x 183 cms | 25 1/2 x 72 ins

National Gallery, London | United Kingdom

A nymph lies on a patch of grass in the foreground, blood streaming from wounds on her throat and hand. A satyr, half man and half goat, kneels next to her, mourning her death. A dog sits at her feet, balancing the stooping figure of the satyr and seemingly mourning as well. More dogs appear at the lakeside in the background.

It has been suggested that this painting depicts an episode from the Metamorphoses, an influential poem by the ancient Roman writer Ovid. If this is the case, then the beautiful nymph would be Procris, who was accidentally killed by her husband Cephalus. A fifteenth-century adaptation of the Metamorphoses added the satyr, which is not mentioned by Ovid.

The painting’s dimensions suggest that it was part of furniture or inserted into wooden panelling. Piero di Cosimo specialised in the production of such paintings, known as spalliere. More on this painting

Cephalus was married to Procris, a daughter of Erechtheus, an ancient founding-figure of Athens. One day the goddess of dawn, Eos, kidnapped Cephalus when he was hunting. The resistant Cephalus and Eos became lovers, and she bore him a son. However, Cephalus always pined for Procris, causing a disgruntled Eos to return him to her, making disparaging remarks about his wife's fidelity. 

Once reunited with Procris after an interval of eight years, Cephalus tested her by returning from the hunt in disguise, and managing to seduce her. In shame Procris fled to the forest, to hunt. In returning and reconciling, Procris brought two magical gifts, an inerrant javelin that never missed its mark, and a hunting hound, Laelaps that always caught its prey. The hound met its end chasing a fox (the Teumessian vixen) which could not be caught; both fox and the hound were turned into stone. But the javelin continued to be used by Cephalus, who was an avid hunter.

Procris then conceived doubts about her husband, who left his bride at the bridal chamber and climbed to a mountaintop and sang a hymn invoking Nephele, "cloud". Procris became convinced that he was serenading a lover. She climbed to where he was to spy on him. Cephalus, hearing a stirring in the brush and thinking the noise came from an animal, threw the never-erring javelin in the direction of the sound – and Procris was impaled. As she lay dying in his arms, she told him "On our wedding vows, please never marry Eos". Cephalus was distraught at the death of his beloved Procris, and went into exile. More on Cephalus and Procris

Piero di Cosimo, 1462-1521

Perseus Frees Andromeda, c. 1513

Tempera grassa on wood

70 x 120 cm

Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

In the centre of the composition, Perseus is dealing with the sea monster that is about to attack Andromeda, daughter of the King of Ethiopia, offered as a sacrifice to placate the monster's ire. The monster had been unleashed by Poseidon, angry with the boastful Cassiopeia, Andromeda's mother. Perseus is shown twice more in the painting, when he sees the dragon and the young sacrificial victim, while flying through the skies on his winged sandals, when he celebrates the liberation of Andromeda, who will become his bride. In the composition, the jubilation of Andromeda's father and the laughing crowds, shown on the right, contrasts with the desperation of the family at the destiny of the young princess in the scene on thee left.

The subject of the painting, derived from the Ovid's Metamorphoses illustrates the story of a famous couple from Greek mythology and seems right for the destination of the panel, painted as part of the furnishings for a nuptial room, most likely that of Filippo Strozzi the younger and Clarice de' Medici in Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, on which cabinet maker Baccio d'Agnolo was working in 1510-1511. The artist, Piero di Cosimo, an eccentric, imaginative Florentine painter, working above all to make the narration clean and the improbably musical instruments or eastern costumes of the subjects credible, rather than evoking the drama of the story, also diluted by the reassuring view of the sea in which the enormous monster is swimming, almost bathing in a pond. More on this painting

He journeyed to Rome in 1482 with his master, Rosselli. He proved himself a true child of the Renaissance by depicting subjects of Classical mythology in such pictures as Venus, Mars, and Cupid, The Death of Procris (See above), the Perseus and Andromeda series (See above), at the Uffizi, and many others. Inspired to the Vitruvius' account of the evolution of man, Piero's mythical compositions show the bizarre presence of hybrid forms of men and animals, or the man learning to use fire and tools. The multitudes of nudes in these works shows the influence of Luca Signorelli on Piero's art.

Piero di Cosimo

The Visitation with Saint Nicholas and Saint Anthony Abbot, c. 1489/1490

Oil on panel

184.2 x 188.6 cm (72 1/2 x 74 1/4 in.)

The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

The central scene of the eccentric Florentine artist Piero di Cosimo's Visitation depicts the meeting of the Virgin Mary and the elderly Saint Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. Saint Nicholas on the left, identified by his attribute of three gold balls alluding to his charity towards the daughters of an impoverished nobleman, and Saint Anthony Abbot on the right, identified by his cane, bell and ever-present pig, sit in the foreground as studious witnesses to the event. Additional scenes relating to the birth of Christ are depicted in the background: the Annunciation painted on a distant church wall, the Nativity and Adoration of the Shepherds on the left, and the Massacre of the Innocents in the middle ground. More on this painting

Piero di Cosimo

The Nativity with the Infant Saint John, c. 1495/1505

Oil on canvas

(diameter): 145.7 cm (57 3/8 in.)

The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

In this Nativity, among the largest of Piero’s roundels, was likely intended for devotional use in a private palace or in the more public setting of a local confraternity or guildhall. Mary kneels in adoration of the infant Christ, who rests on a blue mantle, his head supported by a pillow of wheat that evokes the Eucharist. Also present to venerate the incarnate Jesus are an angel and the young John the Baptist, who clutches a reed cross and regards the Christ child with touching solemnity.

Piero’s narrative vision encompasses details sublime and mundane, from the symbolic rose and bud, rocks, and dove beside Christ to the half-ruined stable in the background with its niche of kitchen utensils. Jesus’s father, Joseph, descends the building’s wooden stairs in the cautious manner of an aged man. He is attended by angels bearing flowering branches to celebrate the Child’s birth. In the distance at left, the three Magi traverse a serene landscape whose rolling contours perfectly complement the tondo’s shape. More on this painting

Piero di Cosimo (Italian, Florence 1462–1522 Florence)

The Young Saint John the Baptist, ca. 1480–82

Tempera and oil on wood

11 1/2 x 9 1/4 in. (29.2 x 23.5 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Saint John the Baptist is one of the patron saints of Florence, where representations of him as a youth enjoyed a special popularity in the fifteenth century. In its format and profile depiction of the saint, this picture resembles contemporary marble reliefs, but the soft modeling reflects Piero's awareness of Netherlandish painting. More on this painting

John the Baptist (sometimes called John in the Wilderness; also referred to as the Angel of the Desert) was the subject of at least eight paintings by the Italian Baroque artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610).

 

The story of John the Baptist is told in the Gospels. John was the cousin of Jesus, and his calling was to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah. He lived in the wilderness of Judea between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, "his raiment of camel's hair, and a leather girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey." He baptised Jesus in the Jordan.

According to the Bible, King Herod's daughter Salome requested Saint John the Baptist's beheading. She was prompted by her mother, Herodias, who sought revenge, because the prophet had condemned her incestuous marriage to Herod. More John the Baptist

Piero di Cosimo, 1462-1521

Madonna and Child Enthroned with Sts. Peter, John the Baptist, Dominic, and Nicholas of Bari

Tempera and oil on panel

69 3/4 in. x 47 in. x 5 in. (177.2 x 119.4 x 12.7 cm)

Saint Louis Art Museum

In a lifelike rendering, this large panel portrays a sacra conversazione (holy conversation) where saints surround the Madonna and Child in a unified pictorial space. Piero di Cosimo’s approach is far removed from the compartmentalized divisions in Lorenzo di Nicolo’s altarpiece elsewhere in this gallery. Here, Saint Peter presents the kneeling Saint Dominic (left) while Saint John the Baptist announces Christ’s ministry, and Saint Nicholas kneels in devotion (right). The three smaller panels, called a predella, depict scenes from the lives of Saints Dominic, John, and Nicholas. The Pugliese coat of arms adorns the frame, identifying the Florentine family who commissioned the work for its private chapel. More on this painting

Piero di Cosimo, 1462-1521

St Mary Magdalene, c. 1490-95

Tempera on panel

72 x 53 cm

Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome

St Mary Magdalene is identified by her profile and the halo, her long hair and jar of ointment. The jar alludes to the visit of the Magdalene and the pious women to the sepulcher on Easter morning. Having reached the place where the body of Jesus would be embalmed with perfumed oils, they found the sepulcher empty and were the first to bear witness to the Resurrection. The long hair with which the Magdalene is generally depicted actually derives from an erroneous interpretation of the Gospel, arising from a confusion between the Magdalene with the nameless prostitute who, repenting of her sins, shed tears on Jesus's feet and dried them with her own hair.

Piero di Cosimo's painting, however, includes details that go beyond the traditional depiction of the saint, drawing on the artist's own time: the style of her dress, the open book and the lady's pose, like the architecture framing her, draw directly on the portraiture of the 1400s. In fact, it cannot be excluded that the painting may actually have been commissioned by or for a lady named Maddalena, who wished to be portrayed as the saint whose name she bore.

The painting is notable for its extremely refined execution, particularly striking in the pictorial surface and definition of the details. In these ways, Piero di Cosimo reveals his profound understanding and appreciation of the formal values of Flemish painting. More on this painting

During his lifetime, Piero acquired a reputation for eccentricity—a reputation enhanced and exaggerated by later commentators. Reportedly, he was frightened of thunderstorms, and so pyrophobic that he rarely cooked his food; he lived on a diet of hard-boiled eggs, which he prepared 50 at a time while boiling glue for his artworks. He also resisted any cleaning of his studio, or trimming of the fruit trees of his orchard; he lived, wrote Vasari, "more like a beast than a man".

If, as Vasari asserts, he spent the last years of his life in gloomy retirement, the change was probably due to preacher Girolamo Savonarola, under whose influence he turned his attention once more to religious art. The death of his master Roselli may also have affected Piero's morose elder years. The Immaculate Conception with Saints, at the Uffizi, and the Holy Family, at Dresden, illustrate the religious fervour to which he was stimulated by Savonarola.

Piero di Cosimo (Italian, Florence 1462–1522 Florence)

A Hunting Scene, ca. 1494–1500

Tempera and oil transferred to Masonite

27 3/4 x 66 3/4 in. (70.5 x 169.5 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

This picture and its companion (also in The Met's collection) (See below) reimagine the early history of humankind and are among the most singular works of the Renaissance. Their inspiration was the fifth book of De Rerum Natura by the Epicurean poet and philosopher Lucretius (ca. 99–55 B.C.). A manuscript of Lucretius’s work was discovered in 1417 and published in Florence in 1471–73. Lucretius believed that the workings of the world can be accounted for by natural rather than divine causes, and he put forward a vision of the history of primitive humanity and the advent of civilization that was much discussed in Renaissance Florence—and beyond. More on this painting

Piero di Cosimo (Italian, Florence 1462–1522 Florence)

The Return from the Hunt, ca. 1494–1500

Tempera and oil on wood

27 3/4 x 66 1/2 in. (70.5 x 168.9 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

This picture and its companion (also in The Met's collection) (See above) reimagine the early history of humankind and are among the most singular works of the Renaissance. Their inspiration was the fifth book of De Rerum Natura by the Epicurean poet and philosopher Lucretius (ca. 99–55 B.C.). A manuscript of Lucretius’s work was discovered in 1417 and published in Florence in 1471–73. Lucretius believed that the workings of the world can be accounted for by natural rather than divine causes, and he put forward a vision of the history of primitive humanity and the advent of civilization that was much discussed in Renaissance Florence—and beyond. More on this painting

With the exception of the landscape background in Rosselli's fresco of the Sermon on the Mount, in the Sistine Chapel, there is no record of any fresco work from his brush. On the other hand, Piero enjoyed a great reputation as a portrait painter: the most famous of his work is in fact the portrait of a Florentine noblewoman, Simonetta Vespucci (See above), mistress of Giuliano de' Medici. According to Vasari, Piero excelled in designing pageants and triumphal processions for the pleasure-loving youths of Florence, and gives a vivid description of one such procession at the end of the carnival of 1507, which illustrated the triumph of death. Piero di Cosimo exercised considerable influence upon his fellow pupils Albertinelli and Bartolomeo della Porta, and was the master of Andrea del Sarto.

Piero di Cosimo (Italian, 1462–1522)

The Discovery of Honey by Bacchus, c. about 1499

Oil on panel

79.2 x 128.4 cm (31 3/16 x 50 9/16 in.)

Worcester Art Museum

In this allegorical setting the mythological figures of Bacchus and Ariadne, in the right foreground, are accompanied by satyrs and maenads who make noise to attract a swarm of bees to settle in a hollow tree. The result is the discovery of honey, considered a step forward in the history of civilization which is symbolized in the background by the juxtaposition of an idyllic view of a town (on the left) and a wild and forbidding landscape (on the right). More on this painting

Piero di Cosimo

The Misfortunes of Silenus, c. 1500

Oil on panel

80.1 x 129.3 cm (31 9/16 x 50 7/8 in.)

Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University

This panel, along with a companion showing the Discovery of Honey, was probably commissioned as a nuptial gift to adorn the bedchamber in the Florentine palace of Giovanni Vespucci and his bride; both panels are described by the artist and biographer Giorgio Vasari in his Life of Piero di Cosimo. Wasps (vespe in Italian) adorned the family’s coats of arms, and the scenes were certainly chosen as humorous but cautionary tales for the newlyweds. The story is based on passages from Ovid’s Fasti, where Silenus, looking for honey, climbs on the back of his donkey to reach into the hollow of a tree. Inside, he discovers a wasp’s nest, setting off a series of misfortunes: the branch on which he was leaning breaks, and he falls from his donkey, is kicked by an ass, and is stung by the wasps he disturbed. At the left of this panel, Bacchus and Ariadne watch as Silenus’s stings are treated with mud. 

The paintings in the Worcester and Harvard Art Museums shared a common provenance until the “Discovery of Honey” (See above) was sold in 1937 to the Worcester Art Museum and the “Misfortunes of Silenus” was sold in 1940 to the Fogg Art Museum. The Fogg Art Museum purchased the painting directly from Mrs. Douglas. More on this painting

Vasari gave Piero's date of death as 1521, and this date is still repeated by many sources, including the Encyclopædia Britannica. However, contemporary documents reveal that he died of plague on 12 April 1522. He is featured in George Eliot's novel Romola. More on Piero di Cosimo

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26 Works, December 3rd. is Lord Frederic Leighton's day, his art, illustrated with footnotes #244

Frederic Leighton (1830–1896)

And the Sea Gave Up the Dead Which Were in It, exhibited 1892

Oil on canvas

H 228.6 x W 228.6 cm

Tate Britain

This is one of the most dramatic and powerful works, painted in the dark and solemn style of Leighton's late career. Leighton's tondo shows the resurrection of the dead, as described in the Book of Revelation: 'And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.' (Revelation 20:13) It is a terrifying yet essentially optimistic image, meditating on the theme of spiritual salvation.

The central group depicts a man, woman and child in various stages of 'awakening': 'The man is alive, his pulses are beating again, his flesh is reddening. His wife wears the greenish ghastly hue of death: his boy is breathing, but still pale and only half alive' (Edgcumbe Staley, quoted in Wilton & Upstone, p.259). All around them, the dead arise from newly-opened graves, some exposing their bodies to the light, others wrapped, mummy-like, in pale shrouds. More on this painting

Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton, PRA (3 December 1830 – 25 January 1896), known as Sir Frederic Leighton between 1878 and 1896, was a British painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. His works depicted historical, biblical, and classical subject matter in an academic style. His paintings were enormously popular, and expensive, during his lifetime.

Frederic Leighton

The Death of Brunelleschi, c. 1852

Oil, canvas

183 x 254 cm

Leighton House Museum

Leighton was keen on Brunelleschi's death by following the proceedings as they happened in a certain building in Florence. Filippo Brunelleschi was instrumental in the southern renaissance, a great figure in the architectural and civil engineering spheres.

 In the foreground of the painting, there is a building located in Florence, whose view reveals the view of the dome of the cathedral. Brunelleschi is shown a semi-recumbent in extremis in a chair accompanied by an array of buildings in the painting’s background that are seemingly defy the correctness in the projection of perspective. More on this painting

Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton  (1830–1896)

The Painter's Honeymoon, c. 1864

Oil on canvas

83.8 × 76.8 cm (32.9 × 30.2 in)

Museum of Fine Arts

In this romantic image, love is equated with art. In its evocation of the past and its precise, controlled style, the painting epitomizes the officially sanctioned academic practice of the late 19th century.

The Italian man who sat for the newly married painter occurs often in Leighton's work: he was apparently one of the artist's favorite models. Importantly, his hands are painted in fine detail, emphasizing how crucial they are to his work. The soft tones and accuracy with which Leighton painted the couple contrasts obviously with the harshness of the orange tree behind them. Leighton appears to have had difficulty in painting it – on close inspection, the oranges look as though they have been enameled. Generally, the composition and glowing color of the picture reflect the influence of such 16th-century Venetian painters as Giorgione and Titian. More on this painting

Frederic Leighton (1830–1896)

Mother and Child, c. 1865

Oil on canvas

H 48 x W 82 cm

Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery

Frederic, Lord Leighton

After Vespers, c. 1871

Oil on canvas

111.5 x 71.5 cm (43 7/8 x 28 1/8 in.)

Princeton University Art Museum

After Vespers epitomizes the delicacy and refinement that Leighton’s Victorian clients appreciated. The setting features mosaics evoking the interior of St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice. The painting’s subject, however, is less the magnificent sanctuary than an enigmatic young woman. Her gold earrings and beads mark her elevated social status, and she gently lifts her skirt to keep it off the dusty floor. Her melancholy expression hints, perhaps, at unrequited love. More on this painting

Frederic, Lord Leighton, P.R.A.

Portrait of Amy Augusta, Lady Coleridge, c. 1888

Oil on canvas

Private collection

Portrait of Amy Augusta Jackson, Lady Coleridge; almost full length, seated and directed to left, looking full face; holding and touch feathered fan on her lap; wearing corset and undergarments

The sitter was the daughter of Henry Baring Lawford of the Bengal Civil Service. She met the widowed Lord Coleridge on his return from a tour of America undertaken in 1883 as a guest of the New York Bar Association. They were married in London two years later. By then Lord Coleridge had risen to the very height of his profession, having been made Lord Chief Justice of England in 1880 by his friend Gladstone. The year this stunning portrait was exhibited he was presiding over the celebrated racing libel case Wood vs Cox. Three years later he famously called H.R.H. The Prince of Wales to the stand in the great Baccarat case, Gordon-Cummings vs. Wilson. More on this painting

Lord Frederic Leighton, British, b.1830, d.1896

Teresina, c. 1874

Oil on canvas board

604 x 495mm

Christchurch Gallery

A young Roman woman, Teresina, was first shown at the Royal Academy in 1876, and came to New Zealand for the Christchurch International Exhibition thirty years later. Its purchase by Canterbury Society of Arts was regarded as a notable coup.

Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton  (1830–1896)

The Music Lesson, c. 1877

Oil on canvas

93 × 95 cm (36.6 × 37.4 in)

Guildhall Art Gallery

The architecture depicted in The Music Lesson is based on studies Leighton completed during his 1873 journey to Damascus. The costumes worn by the women were most likely made of luxe; lustrous fabrics purchased by the artist on this trip. The instrument, a Turkish ‘saz’, was probably his own. These non-Western elements provide an exoticising flair to the work. More on this painting

Frederic, Lord Leighton, P.R.A., R.W.S

Catarina, c. 1878

Oil on canvas

Private collection

Catarina depicts an olive-skinned Italian model dressed in a traditional Campagna smock-shirt, with amber beads at her throat and jasmine flowers in her hair. The composition is beautifully simple, being free of all incidental detail or anecdotal association, nor is any information given about the identity or personality of the sitter.

Catarina lends itself to a purely aesthetic response, allowing the spectator to take delight in the softly-lit physiognomy, the colour of her blushed skin and pink lips reciprocated by the rich colouring and sfumato of her hair and the background. More on this painting

Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton  (1830–1896)

Light of the Harem, circa 1880

Oil on canvas

60 x 32 7/8 inches (152.4 x 83.8 cm)

Private collection

The Light of the Harem was painted in 1880 and depicts a woman arranging a scarf of Damascus silk around her hair while looking into a mirror held by a younger girl. It was one of the first appearances of Leighton's most celebrated model, Ada Alice Pullan who was known by her stage-name, Dorothy Dene. The model for the younger girl is sometimes identified as Connie Gilchrist, a girl who had been 'discovered' as she worked as a skipping-rope dancer at the Gaiety Theatre and who later became Countess Orkney. More on this painting

FREDERIC, LORD LEIGHTON, P.R.A. 1830 - 1896

A NILE WOMAN

Oil on canvas

56 by 30.5cm., 22 by 12in.

Private collection

Sold for  £ 11,353 in Jun 2002

Leighton went to Egypt in 1868, the year before the opening of the Suez canal. He travelled as far south as Aswan and painted over forty landscapes. The viceroy Ismail Pasha placed a steamer at Leighton's disposal, probably on the recommendation of Edward, Prince of Wales who was given the present picture - perhaps in thanks for his introduction.

Leighton cleverly captured the heat of the last light of the day as the solitary Egyptian woman makes her way home through the sand. The careful rendering of her robes is typical of Leighton and the pose of a woman carrying a water-jar appears in several important later works by the artist, including Captive Andromache of 1886 (See below). More on this painting

Leighton was the bearer of the shortest-lived peerage in history; after only one day his hereditary peerage became extinct upon his death

Frederic, Lord Leighton 1830 - 1896

Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna is carried in Procession through the Streets of Florence, c. 1853-5

Oil on canvas

222 x 521 cm

Royal Collection

The picture shows a scene from the 16th century art historian Giorgio Vasari's description of the 13th century procession of an altarpiece of the Madonna and Child through the streets of Florence. The Madonna is being carried from the studio of the Florentine artist Cimabue to the church of Santa Maria Novella. Cimabue himself is depicted immediately in front of the Madonna wearing a laurel wreath upon his head. He is followed by a group including several leading Florentine artistic figures of the day, including his pupil Giotto, the poet Dante Alighieri (leaning on the wall at right), the architect Arnolfo di Cambio, the painters Gaddo Gaddi, Andrea Tafi, Buonamico Buffalmacco and Simone Memmi; the sculptor Nicola Pisano, and on horseback at the right edge of the image, the King of Naples, Charles of Anjou. More on this painting

The Madonna depicted, seen at a very narrow angle in the centre of the painting, is actually not by Cimabue, but instead it is the Rucellai Madonna by Sienese artist Duccio di Buoninsegna. 

This was Leighton's first major work, painted in Rome. It was shown at the Academy in 1855. It was an immediate success, and Queen Victoria bought it for 600 guineas on opening day. More on this painting

Lord Leighton PRA (1830 - 1896)

St Jerome, c. 1869

Oil on canvas

1845 mm x 1420 mm x 40 mm

Royal Academy of Arts

Jerome (Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus, c.  347 – 30 September 420) was a priest, confessor, theologian and historian. He was the son of Eusebius, born at Stridon, a village near Emona on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia, then part of northeastern Italy. He is best known for his translation of most of the Bible into Latin (the translation that became known as the Vulgate), and his commentaries on the Gospels. His list of writings is extensive.

The protégé of Pope Damasus I, who died in December of 384, Jerome was known for his teachings on Christian moral life, especially to those living in cosmopolitan centers such as Rome. In many cases, he focused his attention to the lives of women and identified how a woman devoted to Jesus should live her life. This focus stemmed from his close patron relationships with several prominent female ascetics who were members of affluent senatorial families.

He is recognised as a Saint and Doctor of the Church by the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Lutheran Church, and the Anglican Communion. His feast day is 30 September. More on Jerome

Frederic Leighton had two sisters including Alexandra who was Robert Browning's biographer. He was educated at University College School, London. He then received his artistic training on the European continent. At age 17, in the summer of 1847, he met the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer in Frankfurt and drew his portrait, in graphite and gouache on paper — the only known full-length study of Schopenhauer done from life. When he was 24 he was in Florence; he studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti, and painted the procession of the Cimabue Madonna through the Borgo Allegri. From 1855 to 1859 he lived in Paris, where he met Ingres, Delacroix, Corot and Millet.

Frederic, Lord Leighton 1830–1896

An Athlete Wrestling with a Python, c. 1877

Bronze

1746 × 984 × 1099 mm, 290 kg

Tate

The idea of a heroic male nude struggling with a python came to Leighton as he was working on his huge canvas of the 'Daphnephoria' (now in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, UK). He was making clay models of some of his figures in the painting to help work out the composition, so he modelled this figure in clay as well. The figure was studied from life.

Leighton looked to antiquity for inspiration, to the perfectly poised and proportioned male nude of Greek sculpture, and invested it with a new vitality achieved through close attention not only to the skeletal and muscular structure of the body, but even to such details as veins. More on this sculpture

This is the earlier of Frederic Leighton’s only two life-size sculptures. In subject and scale it was intended as a challenge to one of the greatest classical sculptures, The Laocoön, which shows three men being crushed by sea serpents.  More on this sculpture

In 1860, he moved to London, where he associated with the Pre-Raphaelites. He designed Elizabeth Barrett Browning's tomb for Robert Browning in the English Cemetery, Florence in 1861. In 1864 he became an associate of the Royal Academy and in 1878 he became its President (1878–96). His 1877 sculpture, Athlete Wrestling with a Python (See above), was considered at its time to inaugurate a renaissance in contemporary British sculpture, referred to as the New Sculpture. American art critic Earl Shinn claimed at the time that "Except Leighton, there is scarce any one capable of putting up a correct frescoed figure in the archway of the Kensington Museum." His paintings represented Britain at the great 1900 Paris Exhibition.

Frederic, Lord Leighton, P.R.A.

Venus and Cupid

Oil on canvas

Private Collection

Sold for 375,000 USD in Nov 2017

Cupid is the god of desire, erotic love, attraction and affection. He is often portrayed as the son of the love goddess Venus and the war god Mars, and is known in Latin also as Amor (. His Greek counterpart is Eros. More on Venus and Cupid

Venus and Cupid represents Leighton’s first foray in painting the nude. Works such as The Bath of Psyche (See below) demonstrate Leighton’s continued exploration of the subject, and his influence on its a resurgence in British. More on this painting

Frederic Leighton (1830–1896)

The Fisherman and the Syren, 1856–1858

Oil on canvas

H 66.4 x W 48.9 cm

Bristol Museum & Art Gallery

This early work both illustrated and was inspired by a poem by Goethe, which tells the story of a mermaid who rises from the waters to complain to a fisherman that he is enticing her children to death. Gradually the mermaid's own beauty lures the fisherman into the water and to oblivion. A contemporary critic noted the 'irresistible seductiveness' of the mermaid but he observed also that this 'young artist has plainly drunk long and eagerly at the fount of beauty that assuaged the thirst of Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael'. It was in exactly that spirit that Leighton was to be so much admired. More on this painting

Frederic, Lord Leighton, P.R.A.

Venus Disrobing for the Bath, c. 1867

Oil on canvas

Private collection

Sold for 1,874,500 USD in Oct 2009

From the late 1860s onward, nudes were an important part of Leighton's oeuvre, with Venus Disrobing a portender of the art world's appreciation of the body alone as a beautiful object. More on this painting

Frederic Leighton

Actaea, the Nymph of the Shore, c. 1868

Oil on canvas

57.2 x 102.2 cm

National Gallery of Canada 

In Greek mythology, Actaea was one of the Nereids or sea nymphs, the fifty daughters of the sea god Nereus, who lived in the Aegean. She is portrayed watching her dolphin companions from the shore. Such classical references allowed the Victorians to accept this erotic image. The distant coastline is one that the artist recorded while visiting Rhodes in 1867. More on this painting

Frederic Leighton

Icarus and Daedalus, c.1869

Oil on canvas

138.2 x 106.5 cm

The Faringdon Collection

In Greek mythology, Icarus was the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the creator of the Labyrinth. Icarus and Daedalus attempt to escape from Crete by means of wings that Daedalus constructed from feathers and wax. Daedalus warns Icarus first of complacency and then of hubris, instructing him to fly neither too low nor too high, lest the sea's dampness clog his wings or the sun's heat melt them. Icarus ignores Daedalus’s instructions not to fly too close to the sun, causing the wax in his wings to melt. He tumbles out of the sky, falls into the sea, and drowns. More on Icarus and Daedalus

Frederic Leighton

Hercules Wrestling with Death for the Body of Alcestis

Oil on canvas

Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art

The artworks Hercules wrestling with death over the body of Alcestis portrayed a story about the Hercules and the wife of Admetus who was ready to sacrifice her life for the sake of her husband. Admetus' wife knew that her husband really had angered Artemis but she was willing to sacrifice in order for her husband the king to live. The moment Admetus' wife died, Hercules arrived as a guest in the palace and he didn’t wait but goes on and wrestle with the death over the body of Admetus' wife and shockingly, Hercules was able to win her back. More on this painting

Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton  (1830–1896)

Nausicaa, circa 1879

Oil on canvas

Height: 57 in (144.7 cm); Width: 26.3 in (66.9 cm)

Private collection

Nausicaa was a female character in Greek mythology, who appeared in the Homeric epic Odyssey. She was the daughter of King Alcinous and Queen Arete of Phaeacia. In the Odyssey, the ship of Odysseus was destroyed and washed ashore on the island of Phaeacia. On the shore, Nausicaa and her handmaidens washed their clothes, and the shipwrecked hero was awoken by their laughter and games. He appeared in front of them without wearing any clothes, and asked for help; the handmaidens ran off scared, but Nausicaa offered him some clothes and brought him to the edge of the town. There, she told him that she would go first, so people wouldn't see her walking with a stranger, and that he should then go straight to her father's palace, and speak to her mother first. Odysseus indeed went and spoke to Arete, won her trust, and was accepted as a guest at Alcinous' home. He recounted his numerous adventures and after a few days, Alcinous offered him the necessary ships in order to reach his final destination, More on Nausicaa

Frederic Leighton (1830–1896)

Captive Andromache, c.1888

Oil on canvas

H 197 x W 407 cm

Manchester Art Gallery

Girls and women dressed in flowing drapery process from the left along a raised stone walkway on their way to collect water from a high rectangular well on the right. In the centre stands Andromache, a woman draped in black, her face, neck and foot just visible. She looks pensively towards a family group at the bottom right, where a baby sits on its mothers knee and touches its fathers face. To the front left are two men in deep maroon robes holding wooden staffs, one of whom wears a red cap and gestures with his thumb towards Andromache. A partially draped man in the foreground with his back to the viewer also carries a staff and looks towards her. In the bottom left corner sits an old woman who is spinning. She too gazes at Andromache. A mountainous landscape framed by trees is visible behind Andromache. More on this painting

In Greek mythology, Andromache was the wife of Hector, daughter of Eetion, and sister to Podes. The name means 'man battler' or 'fighter of men.

During the Trojan War, after Hector was killed by Achilles and the city taken by the Greeks, the Greek herald Talthybius informed her of the plan to kill Astyanax, her son by Hector, by throwing him from the city walls. This act was carried out by Neoptolemus who then took Andromache as a concubine and Hector's brother, Helenus, as a slave. When Neoptolemus died, Andromache married Helenus and became Queen of Epirus. In Epirus Andromache faithfully continued to make offerings at Hector’s cenotaph. Andromache eventually went to live with her youngest son, Pergamus in Pergamum, where she died of old age. Andromache was famous for her fidelity and virtue; her character represents the suffering of Trojan women during war. More on Andromache

Frederic, Lord Leighton

The Bath of Psyche, exhibited 1890

Oil paint on canvas

1892 × 622 mm

Tate

Psyche's beauty was so great that no man dared to approach her as a suitor. An oracle told her parents to dress her for marriage and sacrifice her, but she was transported instead to the golden palace of Cupid, the god of love. She lived there in a blissful state, waited on by slaves, and each night Cupid would make love to her, but without his identity being revealed. He later abandoned Psyche when, encouraged by her jealous sisters, she gazed on his sleeping form by the light of a lamp and inadvertently dropped hot oil on his body.

The painting shows Psyche undressing herself in order to bathe before Cupid's arrival. She is completely self-absorbed, and her narcissism is emphasised by her reflection, captured in the smooth surface of the water. The woman's pose, with arms raised to reveal her naked body, derives more specifically from the Callipygian Venus, a famous Greek statue that Leighton would have seen in the Capodimonte Museum in Naples. More on this painting

Frederic, Lord Leighton

Perseus and Andromeda

Oil on canvas

 235 x 129.2 x 12 cm

National Museums Liverpool

Perseus and his mission to kill the Medusa was one of the most renowned ancient legends in the Victorian era. Perseus, the son of Danaë and Zeus, was ordered to fetch the head of the Gorgon Medusa, whose magical power caused all who saw it to be turned to stone. 

Perseus is shown riding here on a winged horse, carrying the Medusa’s head. He has come to the rescue of Andromeda, who is chained to a rock as sacrifice to Poseidon, God of the Sea. Leighton has infused drama in the scene. Perseus’s arrow has just struck the dragon whose body continues to ensnare Andromeda. More on this painting

Leighton was knighted at Windsor in 1878, and was created a baronet, of Holland Park Road in the Parish of St Mary Abbots, Kensington, in the County of Middlesex, eight years later. He was the first painter to be given a peerage, in the 1896 New Year Honours. The patent creating him Baron Leighton, of Stretton in the County of Shropshire, was issued on 24 January 1896; Leighton died the next day of angina pectoris.

Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton  (1830–1896)

The feigned death of Juliet, c. from 1856 until 58

Oil on canvas

Height: 113.60 mm (4.47 in); Width: 175.20 mm (6.89 in)

Art Gallery of South Australia

The scene opens early on Wednesday morning. The Nurse enters Juliet's room and discovers her seemingly lifeless body on the bed. The Nurse tries to wake her, but believing her to be dead, cries out to the family in desperation. The Capulets, Friar Laurence, and Paris enter the room in response to the Nurse's cries. They dramatically mourn Juliet's loss while the Friar maintains his deception by offering words of support about Divine Will, comforting the family by expressing the belief that Juliet is in heaven. He then arranges for Juliet's body to be taken to the family vault. Capulet orders that the wedding preparations be changed to funeral preparations. More on The feigned death of Juliet

Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton  (1830–1896)

Greek Girls Picking up Pebbles by the Sea, c. 1871

Oil on canvas

84 x 130 cm

The Pérez Simón Collection, Mexico

On his death his barony was extinguished after existing for only a day; this is a record in the Peerage. His house in Holland Park, London has been turned into a museum, the Leighton House Museum. A blue plaque commemorates Leighton at Leighton House Museum. More on Frederic Leighton

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