1. The Death of Romeo and Juliet Through Different Mediums
Caitlin Kurtz
9-10.RL.7 Analyze the representation of a subject or a key scene in two different artistic mediums, including what is emphasized or absent in each treatment

2. Two Artists
William Shakespeare
Lord Frederick Leighton

3. William Shakespeare 1564-1616 Stratford-Upon-Avon Romeo and Juliet
approximately 38 plays
154 sonnets
two long narrative poems
and a few other verses
The Globe Theater
Actor turned playwright
Based on an Italian tale by Arthur Brooke in 1562
Written sometime between
Themes of love, fate and chance, and opposites like light/dark, hate/love

4. Lord Frederick Leighton
Yorkshire
From very wealthy family, Father was a doctor
1896, he was ennobled, becoming Frederic, Lord Leighton, Baron of Stretton.
Only British artist to have been awarded this honor
Buried in St Paul's Cathedral

5. The Reconciliation of the Montagues and Capulets over the Dead Bodies of Romeo and Juliet
1855
Oil on canvas
70 x 91 inches
Now located in Atlanta, GA

6. Prince Escalus
This letter doth make good the friar’s words,
Their course of love, the tidings of her death;
And here he writes that he did buy a poison
Of a poor ‘pothecary, and therewithal
Came to this vault, to die and lie with Juliet.
Where be these enemies? Capulet! Montague!
See what a scourge is laid upon your hate,
That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love.
And I for winking at your discords too
Have lost a brace of kinsmen. All are punish’d.
Capulet
O brother Montague, give me thy hand.
This is my daughter’s jointure, for no more
Can I demand.
Montague
But I can give thee more,
For I will raise her statue in pure gold,
That whiles Verona by that name is known,
There shall no figure at such rate be set
As that of true and faithful Juliet.
Capulet
As rich shall Romeo’s by his lady’s lie,
Poor sacrifices of our enmity!
Prince Escalus
A glooming peace this morning with it brings,
The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head.
Go hence to have more talk of these sad things;
Some shall be pardon’d, and some punished:
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

7. The Death Scene in Movies

8. The Feigned Death of Juliet
Worked on from
Oil on Canvas
113.6mm by 175.2mm

9. Two Paintings
Notice the color difference between the two paintings. Why do you think Leighton made those choices between colors? Who are the characters involved in the paintings?

10. Discussion Discuss the following questions with your group:
Which method of storytelling do you prefer: Art, Script, or Performance?
Why? What makes one medium of storytelling better than the other?
Is there something missing from the story when it is adapted to another type of medium? Or is something else added?
Why do you think Romeo and Juliet is still studied today?