Clælia and her Companions escaping from the Etruscan Camp 

Curator: This pen and ink drawing, depicting “Clælia and her Companions escaping from the Etruscan Camp,” is attributed to John Leech. What catches your eye first? Editor: The faces in the water. There's a definite tension between the sketched figures on the bank and those disembodied heads bobbing along. It’s strangely unsettling. Curator: Absolutely. The story of Clælia is a powerful Roman legend. She was one of the hostages given to the Etruscan king Lars Porsena as part of a peace treaty. She escaped with her female companions, swimming across the Tiber. These faces emerging from the water embody resilience, echoing tales of survival and the enduring spirit of Roman womanhood. Editor: Symbolically, water often represents purification or transition. Are these figures being cleansed, or reborn somehow? Their hair streams out around their heads like halos— or snakes? The linearity of the technique actually accentuates this ambiguity. It’s fascinating how much expressive charge Leech gets from what is essentially a quick sketch. Curator: It also emphasizes the narrative structure common to 19th-century art, when images often carried explicit moral lessons. In Clælia’s time, and in Leech's, women are called upon to embody civic virtue through courage. This drawing commemorates historical tales that upheld those values, while providing women with inspiring stories from the distant past. The stark black and white rendering adds to this stark moral dimension. Editor: Interesting. The perspective also seems compressed. See how the figures in the background seem to be observing the scene on the shore and the foreground swimmers, simultaneously creating spatial disjunction. Perhaps the style aims for speed of execution over perfect rendering, creating an urgent, almost feverish mood that complements the subject matter. Curator: I agree; we are plunged directly into the escape. And it makes me wonder, what does it mean for us today? Is the story still relevant? Editor: It’s definitely compelling as an act of resistance in its simplest form. Perhaps this work asks us to reconsider who the heroines in our narratives can be, even now.