The arts of industry as applied to peace

This watercolour by George Morton is an evocation of the importance of the applied arts in classical Greece during peacetime. Fashionable Athenian women try on jewellery, while a group of men unloads a rolled carpet from a boat. Another group examines pots and other ceramics. The watercolour's pair depicts a contrasting scene of artistic achievements in Renaissance Italy during wartime. The two works reproduce, at much reduced scale, original frescoes by Frederic Leighton, which were commissioned in 1868 to decorate the Victoria and Albert Museum. The frescoes’ subject matter was clearly planned to reflect that museum’s social role as a showcase for the finest ‘industrial arts’ intended to stimulate British design and manufacture.