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| style="padding:0 10px;" | a lady, wandering through the wood alone, singing and culling flower after flower, wherewith her pathway was all painted o'er. | style="width:. 5em; vertical-align:bottom; color:#b2b7f2; font-size:3em; font-family:'times new roman', serif; font-weight:bold; text-align:right; padding:2px; line-height:. 5em;" | ”
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| colspan="3" style="padding:0" | —dante alighieri, purgatorio, canto xxviii, v. 40-42
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(see source) dante's matilda (matelda) is usually identified with matilda, countess of tuscany (1046-1115) of the house of canossa. Leslie depicted her gathering flowers in a beautiful landscape, watched in the distance by dante, virgil and statius. When it was exhibited at the royal academy in 1860 it was accompanied by a quotation from psalms; "for thou, lord, hast made me glad through thy work; i will triumph in the works of thy hands" (psalm xcii, 4) the review by tom taylor in times described it as "a lady reclining in a green garden on the edge of a pool starred with water lilies" and celebrated the "power of faithful landscape painting and a thoughtful and graceful feeling for female form and character, which promise well for this young painter's future. " it was bought from the artist by john hamilton trist (1811-1891) a wine-merchant from brighton who owned a fine collection of modern paintings, including examples by albert moore, rossetti, alma-tadema and leighton with a particular taste for the work of arthur hughes (he owned twenty examples). Object Type: painting. Date: 1859. Dimensions: height: 51.4 cm (20.2 in); width: 92.7 cm (36.4 in). Medium: oil on canvas. George Dunlop Leslie - Matilda - Dante, Purgatorio, Canto 28
