Juliet at the Window

A subject from Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet'. In Act 2, Scene 2, Romeo, who has fallen in love with Juliet at the Capulets' ball, hides in an orchard beside her house and she shortly afterwards appears at her window. Fontana's relief was exhibited at the 1874 Royal Academy and at the Liverpool Autumn Exhibition in the same year. The companion piece, 'Romeo', was exhibited in Liverpool in 1878. The detailed rendering of costume and details is characteristic of Fontana's naturalistic relief style as is the illusionistic device of showing Juliet leaning both out of the window and out of the sculpture frame. The sharp perspective of the opened window suggests that the relief was conceived to be viewed from below this implicating the spectator in the events of the story. The relied was bought by George Holt, who assembled the collection now at Sudley Art Gallery, formerly his home.