Lord Leighton's pupils, Poynter and Prinsep, followed him with a good deal of determination. _Val Prinsep_ shares with Leighton the smooth forms of a polished painting, whereas _Edward Poynter_ by his more earnest severity and metallic precision verges more on that union of aridness and style characteristic of Ingres. His masterpiece, "A Visit to Æsculapius," is in point of technique one of the best products of English Classicism. To the left Æsculapius is sitting beneath a pillared porch overgrown with foliage, while, like Raphael's Jupiter in the Farnesina, he supports his bearded chin thoughtfully with his left hand. A nymph who has hurt her foot appears, accompanied by three companions, before the throne of the god, begging him for a remedy. To say nothing of many other nude or nobly draped female figures, numerous decorative paintings in the Houses of Parliament, St. Paul's, and St. Stephen's Church in Dulwich owe their existence to this most industrious artist. _Alma Tadema_, the famous Dutchman who has called to life amid the London fog the sacrifices of Pompeii and Herculaneum, stands to this grave academical group as Gérôme to Couture. As Bulwer Lytton, in the field of literature, created a picture of ancient civilisation so successful that it has not been surpassed by his followers, Alma Tadema has solved the problem of the picture of antique manners in the most authentic fashion in the province of painting. He has peopled the past, rebuilt its towns and refurnished its houses, rekindled the flame upon the sacrificial altars and awakened the echo of the dithyrambs to new life. Poynter tells old fables, while Alma Tadema takes us in his company, and, like the best-informed cicerone, leads us through the streets of old Athens, reconstructing the temples, altars, and dwellings, the shops of the butchers, bakers, and fishmongers, just as they once were. [Illustration: LEIGHTON. THE BATH OF PSYCHE. (_By permission of the Berlin Photographic Co., the owners of the copyright._)]