f
his,..." _i.e._, the _Cimabue_.

In 1860, the artist, who then entered upon his thirtieth year, exhibited
a small picture, _Capri, Sunrise_, which won great praise for its
successful treatment of Italian landscape under the Scirocco, whose
sulphurous light is cast with evil suggestion upon the white houses and
green vegetation. In paying his tribute to the quality of the picture,
the critic of the "Athenaeum" cannot resist, however, the old cry of
great expectations. For the effect of the _Cimabue's Madonna_ had
aroused critics to regard the painter as one who would continue the
legend of the great historical schools, and carry on the traditions of
the so-called grand style. But the critic proposes, the creator
disposes: the artist went his own way, following still his own ideals.

In 1861, some rather warm discussion raged over two of the artist's
contributions to the Royal Academy, which appeared in its catalogue as
Nos. 399 and 550, and which, it was said, had been deliberately slighted
by the hanging committee. In later years, Leighton must sometimes have
smiled when he heard (as from his position he must needs have,) the
annual plaint of the "skied." It is to the "Art Journal," whose
criticisms, when they had to do with the new and rising schools, used to
be always entertaining, if often provoking, in those days, that we turn
for a contemporary account of these things, rather than to any other
source. The critic having premised, with a delightful and convincing air
of "I told you so!" that his first effort (the inevitable _Cimabue's
Madonna_) having exhausted the poor artist, "he has been coming down the
ladder of fame ever since," continues in characteristic tones: "Instead
of being hung too high, the _Dream_, had it been properly hung, would
have been displayed upon the ceiling." The picture, according to this
authority, consisted only of a questionable combination of the "lower
forms of mere decorative ornamentation," and was in fact, "not so much a
picture as a very clever treatment for the centre of a ceiling." So much
for what was really the first clear sign of the artist's delightful
decorative faculty.

It is clear from various evidences of the feeling of the critics about
Leighton at this time, that they had begun to look upon him as one whose
ideals were frivolous, and not seriously minded, or weighted with the
true British substantiality of the old Academy tradition. In the very
next year, the artis