Focus on this artwork and analyze the Design and interpretation.
The sculpture interprets the sleepwalking scene in act 5, scene 1 of Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is depicted sleepwalking barefoot in a flowing nightgown, her eyes half closed, with her left arm reaching across her body to clutch her right hand. Her face is uplifted and turned away from her clenched hands; her facial expression is pained, and her body is twisted by the pose of the head and arms.The piece stands out among Ney's works, most of which were portraits of living persons or historical figures; she produced few other works on fictitious or allegorical subjects.: 29  With its exploration of subjective emotion, this work also represents a shift toward romanticism and away from the neoclassical sculpture more characteristic of Ney's work generally.: 219–220 Lady Macbeth has been understood both as a portrayal of a fictional character and as a self-portrait; the figure's face resembles the artist's own, and Ney wrote in 1903 that the piece was a result and expression of her own feelings of "cruel disappointment" in life.: 17  The statue's evocation of grief has been interpreted as a reference to a frustrated romance earlier in Ney's life (perhaps with King Ludwig II of Bavaria), or to her participation in political intrigues in 1860s Germany,: 212  as well as to her estrangement from her son.
Ludwig II of Bavaria sleepwalking neoclassical sculpture romanticism left nightgown self-portrait Lady Macbeth sleepwalking scene Macbeth