Lamia

This sculpture draws on John Keats’s poem, also called Lamia. In the poem, Lamia is a beautiful serpent-like creature who assumes female form to win the love of the mortal man Lycius. When her true nature is exposed at their wedding, she vanishes and her husband dies.

Frampton's bust is composed of various materials: the skin is made of ivory and the clothing of bronze. The costume is decorated with opals, symbolic of shifting passions and ill fortune.