3-101-060 - "Royal Academy of Arts, London"/Heritage Images

"An Athlete struggling with a Python", c1877, (c1990s). Alternative title: An Athlete Wrestling with a Python. Black and white photograph of a bronze sculpture by Lord Frederic Leighton. The sculpture was a departure for Leighton, and heralded the advent of a new movement, New Sculpture, taking a realistic approach to classical models. It has been described as a "sculptural masterpiece" and as "possibly Leighton's greatest contribution to British art". Despite its indebtedness to the Classical tradition, it can be understood as one of the first stirrings of modern sculpture in Britain as well as in Europe. The Athlete was arguably the most influential piece of English sculpture of the 19th century.