Circular Diagram (in Sketch Book With Drawings on Twenty-six Leaves) 1844 - 1854

This is a page from a sketchbook by Frederic Leighton, made with graphite on paper. Here, a circle dominates, bisected by horizontal lines, and within it, a vortex of vertical, curving lines. The composition is immediately striking for its formal simplicity. The basic structure of the sketch—the circle, the lines—suggests a quest for underlying order and balance. But the vortex of lines challenges this static symmetry. It’s as if Leighton is using geometric forms—a semiotic system of signs—to explore the tension between order and chaos, or the center and the periphery. Moreover, this tension, this visual disruption, is what makes Leighton’s diagram so intriguing. It reminds us that art isn’t about fixed meanings, but the dynamic interplay of forms and ideas.