Flaming June

choi

Ken Johnson, Victorian Gem Arrives, Preceded by Its Fame. New York Times, June 12, 2015 (under the heading Art Review).
www.nytimes.com/2015/06/12/arts/ ... its-reputation.html

My comment:
(a) Read the first five paragraphs only.

(b) The caption of the only photo in the review (the painting itself) says, "Leighton's 'Flaming June' [:] The dreamy portrait of a Victorian-era woman, created around 1895, is making its first appearance in New York at the Frick Collection, on loan from the Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico. The painting is on display until Sept 6."

Which serves a good summary.
(i) Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_Leighton,_1st_Baron_Leighton
(1830-1896; English)
(ii) Flaming June
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flaming_June
(“was auctioned in the 1960s, during a period of time known to be difficult for selling Victorian era paintings, where it failed to sell for its low reserve price of US$140 (the equivalent of $840 in contemporary prices). Afterwards, it was promptly purchased by the Museo de Arte de Ponce" for $1,000 in 1963)
(iii) Frick Collection
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frick_Collection
(iv) Ponce, Puerto Rico
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponce,_Puerto_Rico
(Puerto Rico's most populated city outside the San Juan metropolitan area, is named for Juan Ponce de León y Loayza [believed to be ‘instrumental in obtaining the royal permit to formalize the founding of the [first) hamlet’], the great-grandson of Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León)

(c) "She’s particularly memorable for her disproportionately long and muscular right thigh. Tightly wrapped in diaphanous fabric, it extends from buttock to bended knee across the lower middle of the picture, practically dwarfing the upper part of her body. Leighton based her pose on Michelangelo’s sculpture 'Night' and on a copy of his [Michelangelo’s] lost painting ‘Leda and the Swan,’ both of which feature similarly bent legs with powerful thighs."
(i) diaphanous (adj; etymology)
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/diaphanous
(ii) Night (Michelangelo)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_(Michelangelo)
(iii) Leda and the Swan
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leda_and_the_Swan

(d) “Measuring just under 4 feet by 4 feet, ‘Flaming June,’ circa 1895, appears within a brightly gold-leafed, tabernacle frame that imitates the Ionic architecture of ancient Greco-Roman temples.

tabernacle frame, ca 1510, [provenance:] Florence]; walnut and poplar; overall 29 1/2 x 14 9/16 in (75 x 37 cm); [obtained from or donated by] Robert Lehman Collection, 1975 ([No] 1975.1.1638)
Metropolitan Museum of Art
www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1975.1.1638