k, shows a draped female figure, in a very
Leightonesque pose, with her arm above her head, leaning against a wall
by the water. She holds a peacock's feather screen in her left hand,
while a swan in the water at her feet cranes its head upwards towards
her; _Michael Angelo nursing his dying Servant_, a group of two
three-quarter length figures; the servant reclining in an armchair with
his head resting against the shoulder of Michael Angelo--a fairly
powerful but somewhat academic version of the incident--which looks at
first glance like the work of a not very important "old master;" _The
Star of Bethlehem_, showing one of the Magi on the terrace of his house
looking at the strange star in the East, while below are indications of
a revel he has just left. _Duett_, _Sisters_, _Sea Echoes_, and _Rustic
Music_, also belong to this year.

In 1863 he showed _Eucharis_, a half-length figure of a white-robed
girl, with a basket of fruit on her head; _Jezebel and Ahab_; _A
Cross-bow Man_; and _A Girl Feeding Peacocks_; with these we complete
the list of his work as an outsider.

[Illustration: GOLDEN HOURS (1864)]

CHAPTER III

YEAR BY YEAR--1864 TO 1869

In 1864 Leighton was made an Associate of the Royal Academy. To its
summer exhibition he contributed three pictures, showing great and
various power in their composition. _Dante at Verona_, _Orpheus and
Eurydice_, and _Golden Hours_. The first of these, one of the most
remarkable pictures of our modern English school, in which "Dante"
appears, is a large work, with figures something less than life-size. It
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, a