''Lachrymae'' is a late 19th-century painting by British artist Lord Frederic Leighton. Done in oil on canvas, the work depicts a conceptual figure inspired by

classical antiquity Classical antiquity, also known as the classical era, classical period, classical age, or simply antiquity, is the period of cultural History of Europe, European history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD comprising the inter ...

. ''Lachrymae'' is currently in the collection of the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

Description

Background

''Lachrymae'' was painted by British artist Frederic Leighton between 1894 and 1895. An influential artist, Leighton was notable for his love of history, and was known by the moniker 'Jupiter Olympus' due to his interest in classical antiquity. A member of the British upper class, Leighton was given a traditional, classics-heavy education, and was educated in several cities notable for being bastions of classical art. Following his rise as an artist in his own right, Leighton often associated himself with the

Pre-Raphaelite The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB), later known as the Pre-Raphaelites, was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, ...

movement, which often produced art depicting figures from Medieval and Classical lore. Leighton was considered to be a

neoclassicist Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassici ...

Painting

The painting itself depicts a woman leaning against a

Doric column The Doric order is one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of t ...

. The omnipresent theme of the work is mourning and death. The figure is dressed in black, and she leans against a pillar; some sources have postulated the pillar is a funerary monument. Cypress trees—a traditional symbol of mourning—are visible in the background, and a withered wreath made of cypress leaves can be seen at the base of the column. As noted by the Metropolitan Museum of Art's profile of ''Lachrymae'', the painting's tabernacle frame evokes thoughts of a temple doorway. The painting's title, Lachrymae, translates to "tears" in Latin. The painting has been compared to '' Electra at the Tomb of Agamemnon'', one of Leighton's earlier works. A study and several preliminary drawings (both done in chalk) of the subject's head are in the collection of the Leighton House Museum in London. One source notes that the cypress rendered in ''Lachrymae'' is reminiscent of a drawing Leighton made in Florence in 1854. The model Leighton used for the painting has been identified as Mary Loyd ("Miss Loyd"), who also served as the model for ''

Flaming June ''Flaming June'' is a painting by Sir Frederic Leighton, produced in 1895. Painted with oil paints on a square canvas, it depicts a sleeping woman in a sensuous version of his classicist Academic art, Academic style. It is Leighton's most reco ...

'', another of Leighton's famous works. In addition to symbols of death, ''Lachrymae'' depicts pieces of Greek pottery Leighton likely used as props or inspiration.

References

{{Frederic Leighton 1895 paintings Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Paintings about death Paintings by Frederic Leighton Oil on canvas paintings Paintings of women Works about ancient Greece