Frederic Lord Leighton” Cymon and Iphigenia” 1884, Art gallery of NSW.

Lord Leighton was a president of Royal Academy of Arts, his art was very popular. For example, Queen Victoria once visited him and purchased 3 paintings. He was the first painter in England to become a peer. He died the next day of angina. As he was unmarried, after his death his barony was extinguished after existing for only a day; this is an all-time record in the Peerage.

At this time it was very fashionable to make historical paintings with subjects from ancient myths or novels. This picture tells the viewer the story, written by Boccaccio , about Cymon and Iphigenia. Cymon was handsome but ignorant and crude nobleman. Once he met beautiful Iphigenia with her slaves and fell in love with her .This feeling completely changed him, he became more cultured and refined.

The artist applied soft and warm paint on this canvas. The main colours are peach, yellow, almost golden, red and brown. They help to create an impression of warm summer evening .Hues ,depicting Iphigenia are tender, light, almost pastel, whereas the tones used for represent Cymon are bright and definite ,range of colours is narrow. This is likely to draw attention to the girl’s relaxation and calmness as opposite to young man’s passion and not very cultured behaviour. There is a strong contrast between light and dark colours in this canvas which creates an illusion of three dimentionality as well as draws viewers attention to the main characters.

Leighton pays a very big attention to depiction of fabrics and draperies. For this purpose he uses big long strokes of a brush .

There are two sources of light on this canvas: one is the sun and another one is as if “hidden”. The painter makes an effect of light coming as if from the sleeping Iphiginia . Possibly it was the way to emphasize her importance and , probably, to compare her with sun. It’s like the metaphore: Iphiginia is a ray of light in Cymon’s life.

For portraying of the faces of the protagonists the artist applied small, almost invisible strokes of a brush. It made the faces look very natural and true to life.

Pose of Iphigenia is very graceful :it allows the painter to show her body from all the angles. This posture is not natural ,people don’t sleep like that,only if they want to pretend they do.

Sleeping slaves don’t look like servants: their clothes are nice and died in different colours. In Greece people used to wear much simpler outfits. The tone of Cymon’s “toga” is crimson red. This dye was extremely expensive and only very well-off people could afford it.(The pigment was extracted from the sea shells).

The picture itself is very big (163x328 cm) and very elaborate. It took a lot of time for the painter to finish it.

Behind Iphigenia there are two huge trees, whereas behind Cymon-young bushes. Possibly, the painter is trying to say that influence of Iphigenia will make Cymon grow in understanding of life like a tree. Tree is a symbol of life and virtue, it is likely that in such a way the painter showed his attitude towards the heroine.

The whole atmosphere in this painting is very romantic and poetic. It is created by the colour scheme, poses and composition itself.

The costumes the people are wearing are imaginary: people didn’t wear such clothing neither in Italy in Boccacio’s time nor in ancient Greece. There is one peculiar detail about this work: the dress of a sleeping slave girl is contemporary for the beginning of 19^th century, she also wears a pony tail. Nobody in Greece or Italy wore ponytales . They became fashionable in 20^th century. Even women of 19^thcentury never wore this very informal hairstyle outside of boudoir. It’s possible to assume that thus the painter tried to emphasize the common origin of the girl.

There is a dog next to Cymon, symbolizing the purity of the young man’s love, his adoration of the girl.

One of Iphigenia’s pillows is red. Perhaps Leigton thus pointed out the main heroes of the painting. Another reason is the desire to show that the girl is rich .Possibly, the painter tried to show the redness of Iphigenia’s lips in such a way. It’s interesting to notice that the other pillow is orange-transitional hue between the red pillow and the yellow dress of Iphigenia. So the painter showed his talent of colorist as well as made the painting more balanced (red outfit of Cymon in the right –red pillow in the lift ; Yellow dress of Iphigenia-yellow yellow cloth over the vessel next to the sleeping servant.

The painting is one of the most beautiful ones ever created. It made me want to read Boccaccio’s novels.