This beautifully painted sketch is Leighton’s original idea for the figure of the thirteenth-century Italian sculptor Nicola Pisano commissioned to be executed in mosaic for the South Court of the new South Kensington Museum. Leighton had been commissioned to complete the full-length figures of Pisano and his contemporary, the painter Cimabue, having included both in his 1855 work Cimabue’s Madonna Carried in Procession through the Streets of Florence (National Gallery, London). The present fluid oil sketch shows Leighton working from a life model to capture the resolute features of the young sculptor and establish the complex foreshortening of the left hand, which is shown holding a small bronze modello; the lithe, taut hand displays Leighton’s extraordinary facility as a designer. Previously unrecorded, this beautiful sketch shows the care with which Leighton went to complete major public commissions early in his career.

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