‘Death of the Firstborn,’ by Frederic Leighton

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Death of the Firstborn

Frederic Leighton

Produced 1863 or later, but not published until 1880–81

Proof wood engraving cut by the Dalziel Brothers, printed on India paper

7½ x 6¾ inches

Illustration in Dalziels’ Bible Gallery.

Plate 30 An image of Exodus 11: 1–3, depicting the death, by plague, of the firstborn of Egypt, so forcing Pharaoh to release the Israelites. [Commentary continues below.]

Scanned image and text by Simon Cooke. [Click on the image to enlarge it, and mouse over the text for links.]

Those Israelites were saved from the pestilence by marking their doorpost with a sacrificed lamb’s blood – the Passover. Leighton represents the universality of the Egyptian death-toll in the unusual format of a Renaissance altarpiece. In the main panel a family laments the passing of a youthful male, who is represented as a classical, heroic type; other characters express their grief in the form of melodramatic gestures. The image alludes to Renaissance treatments of the Descent from the Cross, although Leighton’s purpose here is curiously at odds with the notion of the death as a righteous judgement, an idea he tries to clarify by the placing of the allegorical figure of Justice in the background. The scenes in the predella further stress the inescapable punishment. The central section shows the Pharaoh’s family’s anguish; on the left (in tiny detail) a camel inspects its dead calf; and on the right a dead prisoner slumps forward.

You may use the image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned it and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.

Bibliography

Dalziels’ Bible Gallery. London: Routledge, 1881 [1880].

Created 23 June 2026