Proserpine, Ceres,
and Hermes, that are seen meeting before the mouth of Hades. _The Spirit
of the Summit_, one of the latest of these embodiments of the relation
of Man to Nature, may be read to mean Man's finer spirit of aspiration,
and the mountainous imagination of Art itself. It is characteristic of
the artist that, in the later years of his career, at a time when most
artists and men are apt to give up something of their earlier pursuit of
ideals, he retained undiminished a feeling for the unaccomplished
heights of the imagination. _The Spirit of the Summit_ may serve, then,
as the symbol, not so much of things attained, and Art victorious, as of
things that are always to be attained, and of Art striving and
undeterred. In this way it may serve, too, as in some sort the emblem of
Leighton's own ideals, and of his whole career. His artistic temper was
throughout, one of endless energy, endless determination; with a dash of
that finer dissatisfaction which is always seeking out new embodiments,
under all difficulties, of Man's pursuit, in a difficult, and often an
unbeautiful world, of Truth and Beauty. Above all, he was a consummate
draughtsman, and as Francisco Pacheco, the father-in-law of Velasquez,
wrote in his "Arte de la Pintura" (1649): "Drawing is the life and soul
of painting; drawing, especially outline, is the hardest; nay, the Art
has, strictly speaking, no other difficulty. Without drawing painting is
nothing but a vulgar craft; those who neglect it are bastards of the
Art, mere daubers and blotchers."

[Illustration: STUDY FOR "THE RETURN OF PERSEPHONE"]

[Illustration: STUDY FOR "PERSEPHONE"]

CHAPTER VII

MURAL DECORATION, SCULPTURE, AND ILLUSTRATION

The drawings of Lord Leighton deserve special consideration. The famous
_Lemon Tree_ was made at Capri in the Spring of 1859; it is work that no
Pre-Raphaelite could have finished more minutely, yet it has nothing
"niggling" in its treatment. In a conversation[10] Lord Leighton is said
to have referred to the many days spent upon the production of this
study--dwelling specially on the difficulty he experienced in finding
again and again each separate leaf in the perspective of the confused
branches, as morning after morning he returned at sunrise to continue
the work. The drawing of each leaf reveals the close observation which
ultimately recorded its particular individuality. You feel that as a
shepherd knows his sheep to call each b