Cymon and Iphigenia
Frederic Leighton, 1884
Cymon and Iphigenia is an oil on canvas by Frederic Leighton, first shown at the Royal Academy in London in 1884. It takes its subject from the first tale of the fifth day of Boccaccio's Decameron: Iphigenia sleeps in the woods while Cymon, a young nobleman of coarse manners, gazes at her and is transformed from that moment into a refined man. Leighton set the scene at dusk, with the thin edge of the moon just rising over the sea and an afterglow still lingering in the sky, shifting the story from spring to a more autumnal mood. The reclining figure, arms raised above her head and loosely draped, anchors the composition, while sleeping attendants and a dog complete a picture of complete stillness. Leighton worked through dozens of preparatory drawings before settling the pose. The model for Iphigenia is generally identified as Dorothy Dene, who appeared in several of his other paintings. The work now hangs in the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney and is regarded as one of his most important late paintings.
- Painter
- Frederic Leighton
- Date
- 1884
- Medium
- oil paint, canvas
- Dimensions
- 163 × 328 cm
- Museum
- Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
- Movement
- Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
- Genre
- narrative painting
- Depicts
- Cymon, Iphigenia, Cymon and Iphigenia
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