Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
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Henry Tate Collection
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/frederic-lord-leighton-342" aria-label="More by Frederic, Lord Leighton" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Frederic, Lord Leighton</a>
And Sea Gave Up Dead Which Were in It
Presented by Sir Henry Tate 1894
actions: expressive
actions: postures and motions
adults
arm / arms raised
Bible: New Testament
birth to death
body
boy
children
cloud
coffin
corpse
crown
death
embracing
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
floating
flying
group
groups
hope
Judaeo-Christian imagery
looking up
man
objects
people
religion and belief
religious and ceremonial
resurrection
Revelation, chapter 20
salvation
sea
seascapes and coasts
shroud
society
storm
universal religious imagery
wave
weather
woman
<p>This scene shows the resurrection of the dead as described in the Bible’s <span>Book of Revelation</span>. Figures rise out of tombs and the ocean. Their poses and skin colour show stages of resurrection, from the limp paleness of death to the vigour of renewed life. The work was originally one of eight roundels Leighton designed for the dome of London’s St Paul’s Cathedral on the theme of the Apocalypse. However, the series was rejected as ‘unsuitable for a Christian church’. This reduced, version was commissioned by Henry Tate for his gallery of British art.</p><p><em>Gallery label, October 2020</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
8 October 2001 – 25 July 2004
2004-07-25
8 October 2001 – 25 July 2004
2004-07-25
2001-10-08
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-10-08
John Martin and Visions of the Apocalypse
Collection based display
18 August 2009 – 14 November 2010
2010-11-14
18 August 2009 – 14 November 2010
2010-11-14
2009-08-18
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2009-08-18
Sublime
Collection based display
14 December 2012 – 26 September 2022
2022-09-26
10 December 2012 – 25 September 2022
2022-09-25
2012-12-10
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-12-14
Gallery 4
Collection based display
5 November 2016 – 31 August 2025
2025-08-31
10 November 2023 – 14 April 2024
2024-04-14
2023-11-10
LWL-Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Westfälisches (Munster, Germany)
http://landesmuseum.lwl.org
2016-11-05
Nude: art from the Tate collection
Tate partnerships & programmes
And the Sea Gave Up the Dead Which Were in It
support: 2286 × 2286 mm
frame: 2780 × 2780 × 115 mm
Presented by <a href="/search?gid=999999962" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Sir Henry Tate</a> 1894
<p>This is one of the most dramatic and powerful works, painted in the dark and solemn style of Leighton's late career.  It was originally designed as one of eight roundels on the theme of the Apocalypse, intended to decorate the spandrels of the dome of St Paul's Cathedral in London.  The scheme was initiated by Alfred Stevens (1817-75), but was abandoned when the original design was rejected as  'unsuitable for a Christian church' (quoted in Wilton &amp; Upstone, p.260). The present, reduced, version was commissioned by Henry Tate, for his new gallery of British art.

</p><p>Leighton's tondo shows the resurrection of the dead, as described in the <i>Book of Revelation</i>: 'And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.' (<i>Revelation </i>20:13) It is a terrifying yet essentially optimistic image, meditating on the theme of spiritual salvation. The central group depicts a man, woman and child in various stages of 'awakening': 'The man is alive, his pulses are beating again, his flesh is reddening.  His wife wears the greenish ghastly hue of death: his boy is breathing, but still pale and only half alive' (Edgcumbe Staley, quoted in Wilton &amp; Upstone, p.259). All around them, the dead arise from newly-opened graves, some exposing their bodies to the light, others wrapped, mummy-like, in pale shrouds. A trail of cloud bisects the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a> and separates the lower realms of the dead from the spiritual upper realm of the living.  Leighton uses colour symbolically, contrasting the grey pallor of the dead or half-living with the brilliance and renewed vigour of the risen. A debt to Delacroix (1798-1863) is clear in the fluid brushwork of the preparatory oil sketch (Leighton House Museum and Art Gallery).  The finished work, on the other hand, calls to mind Eugène Delacroix's contemporary,  Théodore Géricault (1791-1824) and especially his <i>Raft of the Medusa </i>(1819 Louvre, Paris). The influence of Michelangelo is evident in both the Géricault and Leighton <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a>, in their monumental scale and their preoccupation with human anatomy.  More specifically, the pose of the figure in the right background of Leighton's picture and the shrouds of the resurrected are clearly inspired by Michelangelo's <i>Entombment</i>, which entered the National Gallery's collection in 1868, and which Leighton greatly admired.  

</p><p><i>And the Sea </i> was Leighton's favourite design, but met with only moderate approval. One critic commented that the picture had 'a cold - almost oppressive - dignity', but also that it displayed 'perhaps better than any other the loftiness of his thought, the high-water mark of his mental conception'(<i>Magazine of Art</i>, 1892, p.220).<br/></p><blockquote><br/></blockquote><b>Further reading:<br/></b>Stephen Jones, Christopher Newall, Leonée Ormond, Richard Ormond, Benedict Read, <i>Frederic Leighton 1830-1896</i>, exhibition catalogue, Royal Academy of Arts, London 1996, pp.230-2, no.116, reproduced p.230, in colour.<br/>Andrew Wilton and Robert Upstone, <i>The Age of Rossetti, Burne-Jones &amp; Watts: Symbolism in Britain 1860-1910</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, pp.259-60, no 120, reproduced p.259, in colour.

<p>Frances Fowle<br/>December 2000</p>
Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="text">
<p>This scene shows the resurrection of the dead as described in the Bible’s <i>Book of Revelation</i>. Figures rise out of tombs and the ocean. Their poses and skin colour show stages of resurrection, from the limp paleness of death to the vigour of renewed life. The work was originally one of eight roundels Leighton designed for the dome of London’s St Paul’s Cathedral on the theme of the Apocalypse. However, the series was rejected as ‘unsuitable for a Christian church’. This reduced, version was commissioned by Henry Tate for his gallery of British art.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2020-10-13T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
actions: expressive actions: postures and motions adults arm / arms raised Bible: New Testament birth to death body boy children cloud coffin corpse crown death embracing emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas floating flying group groups hope Judaeo-Christian imagery looking up man objects people religion and belief religious and ceremonial resurrection Revelation, chapter 20 salvation sea seascapes and coasts shroud society storm universal religious imagery wave weather woman