[1] Possessing a classical Greek style beauty, Dene had golden wavy hair with excellent skin texture and colouration on her face; she was taller than average with graceful arms and legs together with an “exquisitely moulded bust”.

[2] The painting took eight months to complete;[1] a succession of line drawings were done first as Leighton tried to capture the position he wanted for the central figure,[3] around 56 – including several of foliage and other elements of the piece – of these are known to exist.

[6] The two compositions each highlight the difference between the fair complexion of a female with a dark skinned male; both feature a full-length woman reclining beneath a tree and similar lighting techniques are used.

[7] Based on Giovanni Boccaccio's[8] The Decameron, the painting depicts a scene from the first tale of day five; Iphigenia is sleeping in the woods and Cymon, a young nobleman, stands gazing at her beauty which fills him with inspiration.

[3] Her body is loosely covered by material[11] and the depiction of her figure is described as "masterly" by a writer using the name of "Mentezuma" in his report included in the Art Amateur about the Royal Academy exhibition of 1884.

[12] According to Greenhough White, Leighton had the ability to show "the perfection of repose" and the "self-abandonment and unconsciousness of sleep" and it was utilised to full effect in this painting and his earlier work entitled Summer Moon.

[7] After viewing it at the exhibition an unnamed French critic reported that he could not recall "a more original effect of light and colour, used in the broad, true, and ideal treatment of lovely forms.