Abstract

Victorian critics repeatedly accused Frederic Leighton’s painted figures of appearing as if they were made of intermediate substances between marble and flesh, especially wax. In this essay, I take this charge seriously. I argue that in his paintings of the female nude Leighton sought to elevate the naked bodies of his life models to the exalted status of the marble Venuses of Greek antiquity. Yet this transformation remains incomplete, his female nudes continuing to bear evidence of the artist’s encounter with the fragmented bodies of antique Venuses and the naked working-class bodies of his life models.

pdf

Share