HE DAPHNEPHORIA (1876)
_By permission of The Fine Art Society._]
[Illustration: STUDY FOR "THE DAPHNEPHORIA"]
With the painter's reading of the _Daphnephoria_ it may be
interesting to compare another account of this splendid religious
function. At this festival in honour of Apollo, celebrated every ninth
year by the Boeotians, it was usual, says pleasant Lempriere, "to
adorn an olive bough with garlands of laurel and other flowers, and
place on the top a brazen globe, from which were suspended smaller ones.
In the middle was placed a number of crowns, and a globe of inferior
size, and the bottom was adorned with a saffron-coloured garment. The
globe on the top represented the Sun, or Apollo; that in the middle was
an emblem of the moon, and the others of the stars. The crowns, which
were 365 in number, represented the sun's annual revolution. This bough
was carried in solemn procession by a beautiful youth of an illustrious
family, whose parents were both living. He was dressed in rich garments
which reached to the ground, his hair hung loose and dishevelled, his
head was covered with a golden crown, and he wore on his feet shoes
called _Iphricatidae_, from Iphricates, an Athenian who first invented
them. He was called Daphnephoros, 'laurel-bearer,' and at that
time he executed the office of priest of Apollo. He was preceded by one
of his nearest relations, bearing a rod adorned with garlands, and
behind him followed a train of virgins with branches in their hands. In
this order the procession advanced as far as the temple of Apollo,
surnamed Ismenius, where supplicatory hymns were sung to the god."[5]
In the 1876 Academy hung also the striking portrait, _Captain Richard
Burton, H.M.'s Consul at Trieste_; and two very characteristic single
figures, _Teresina_ and _Paolo_. The portrait of Captain Burton has been
fairly described as masterly. "There is no attempt," said one critic,
"at posing or picturesqueness in the portrait. It is the head of a man
who is lean and rugged and brown, but the face is full of character, and
every line tells. It is painted in the same strong and bold, and yet
careful, way that distinguishes the head of Signor Costa, painted three
years later."
The next year saw Leighton's first appearance as a sculptor. It was at
the Academy of 1877 that he exhibited the well-known, vigorously
designed and wrought _Athlete Struggling with a Python_.[6] This
adventure of the R.A. i
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