Beschreibung:

NATIVITY Gerard Dillon (1916-1971)
Signature: Medium: hand-painted stone carving; (unique) Dimensions: 17¾ x 18 x 3in. (45.09 x 45.72 x 7.62cm) Provenance: Collection of George and Maura McClelland Exhibited: Literature: Images and textures of stone recur throughout Gerard Dillon's oeuvre, from the distinctive wall patterns in his West of Ireland paintings, to his idiosyncratic and playful interpretations of the carve... ed Irish scripture crosses. Nativity, a hand-painted stone carving, is without parallel in Dillon's body of work, a unique and individual exploration of the traditional religious iconography and early Irish stone carving that he drew on throughout his career. Marking a departure from his two-dimensional work on paper and canvas, Nativity reveals Dillon's exploration of the graphic and sculptural potential of shallow-relief carving, as well as the layering of colours and tones on polished limestone. Although more often associated with his scenes of the Western Irish coast, and with his highly personal 'pierrot' or clown series, Dillon frequently employed religious iconography. In his biography of Dillon, James White highlighted the intensely religious visual culture that surrounded Dillon during his youth in Belfast, describing the 'altars with lamps and flowers would be in almost every little Catholic house in the Falls Road area', as well as the 'large coloured reproductions of the Sacred Heart and the Virgin'. (1) Forgive us our Trespasses (1942), for example, depicts the long queue for confession, whereas paintings such as The Holy Island or Fast Day engage explicitly with religious iconography and experience. Dillon's highly personal interpretations in these works, and particularly in Nativity, affirm his importance to the canon of religious art in twentieth-century Ireland. The formal structure of Nativity, with the individual figures depicted in carefully defined compartments, reflects the arrangements on the Irish carved scripture crosses, as well as his 'childhood love of cutting out and rearranging images from newspapers and magazines' (2). The inclusion of the three kings, and the kneeling shepherds at the base of the limestone block, balances the composition and focuses attention on the cross shape formed by the Christ child and angels. Both the formal arrangement and the treatment of colour and figures within Nativity reveal Dillon's deep engagement with Irish and European religious iconography. The figures of Mary and Joseph in profile reflect the flattened and stylised graphic style of Insular manuscripts such as the Book of Kells. The delicate washes of colour on stone and careful incisions delineating mass and form, however, may reflect the influence of medieval and early Renaissance Italian art, particularly the work of Giotto, or even the richly-coloured depictions of the Kings from the mosaics in Ravenna's Basilica of Sant' Apollinare Nuovo. The shallow-relief carving and formal arrangement of Nativity also echo early modern Irish grave-slab carving. The tonal depth and delicacy of this work on polished limestone is particularly evident when compared with a similar arrangement in wax crayon on paper, with its brighter and harsher colours, and with a flattened arrangement that resembles a design for stained glass (3). While Nativity remains unique within Dillon's oeuvre, the carved sharp relief of each figure in the stone perhaps influenced the strong graphic style of his later works, and particularly works such as Clown with Magnifying Glass in his Pierrot series. (4) Dr Niamh NicGhabhann August 2016 1. James White Gerard Dillon an illustrated biography (Dublin: Wolfhound Press, 1994), 18. 2. Catherine Marshall, 'Gerard Dillon', in Catherine Marshall, Peter Murray and Andrew Carpenter (eds.), Art and Architecture of Ireland, Volume 5 Twentieth Century, (London and New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015), p. 141. 3. Karen Reihill, Gerard Dillon Art and Friendships, Adam's, Dublin, 2013, p.97 (catalogue no. 85 'Nativity'. "A