_Arts of War_ belongs to the year 1872, and its companion, _Arts of
Peace_, to 1873. These works will be found treated at length in a later
chapter on the artist's decorative work (pp. 63, 64).

In the Academy of 1874 appeared four pictures, the most important being
the heroic painting,--_Clytemnestra from the Battlements of Argos
watches for the Beacon-fires which are to announce the Return of
Agamemnon_. In this picture, the figure of Clytemnestra is seen standing
erect, with hands folded, supporting the drapery that clothes a majestic
form. For further description, we may be content to quote that given at
the time in the appreciative art columns of the "Athenaeum:"

"There is the grandeur of Greek tragedy in Mr. Leighton's _Clytemnestra_
watching for the signal of her husband's return from Troy. The time is
deep in the fateful night, while the city sleeps; moonlight floods the
walls, the roofs, the gates, and the towers with a ghastly glare, which
seems presageful, and casts shadows as dark as they are mysterious and
terrible. The dense blue of the sky is dim, sad, and ominous. But the
most ominous and impressive element of the picture is a grim figure,
the tall woman on the palace roof before us, who looks Titanic in her
stateliness, and huge beyond humanity in the voluminous white drapery
that wraps her limbs and bosom. Her hands are clenched and her arms
thrust down straight and rigidly, each finger locked as in a struggle to
strangle its fellow; the muscles swell on the bulky limbs. Drawn erect
and with set features, which are so pale that the moonlight could not
make them paler, the queen stares fixedly and yet eagerly into the
distance, as if she had the will to look over the very edge of the world
for the light to come."

[Illustration: THE JUGGLING GIRL (1874)]

[Illustration: A CONDOTTIERE (1872)
_By permission of the Corporation of Birmingham_]

Another picture this year was the _Moorish Garden--a dream of Granada_,
a delightful little canvas, almost square. In the foreground is a young
girl carrying copper vessels, and followed by two peacocks; the
background is obviously taken from the study of a garden at Generalife
(reproduced at p. 28); the _Antique Juggling Girl_ and _Old Damascus:
the Jews' Quarter_, were also in the Academy of 1874.

To 1875 belongs the _Egyptian Slinger_, a picture which, as we shall see
later, provoked severe censure from Mr. Ruskin. As exhibited it dif