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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
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