EYE OF HORUS, 1971
Merz collage. Dimensions unknown.
Provenance
Untraced.
Exhibited
Newlyn, Newlyn Art Gallery, 1971, No. 7.
Penzance, Newlyn Orion Gallery, 1976, No. 58.
This is one of the artist’s Merz collages, executed under the influence of Kurt Schwitters.
Horus was one of the most important Egyptian gods, a sun-god represented as a falcon or with the head of a hawk, whose right eye was the sun and whose left eye was the moon. He was the son of Osiris (god of the underworld) and Isis (mother goddess). Osiris was slain by his own brother, the evil Set (Jackal-headed god of the night). Horus fought Set to avenge his father’s death, winning the battle but losing an eye in the process. The eye was restored by the magic of the god of wisdom and the moon, Thoth, and this allowed Horus to grant Osiris rebirth in the underworld.
The eye of Horus is a powerful symbol of protection and is also considered to confer wisdom, health and prosperity.
See also Horus (c.1957).