ST PATRICK'S BREAST PLATE, 1964
Merz collage. 18 x 11in. (45.75 x 28cm.)
Provenance
Untraced.
Exhibited
London, Whitechapel Gallery, 1966, No. 26.
Newlyn, Newlyn Art Gallery, 1967, No. 1.
Bristol, Bristol Arts Centre, 1970, No. 20.
Penzance, Newlyn Orion Gallery, 1976, No. 57.
Saint Patrick is said to have prepared for his confrontation with the Pagans at the Hill of Tara by composing a poem, known as Lorica or Saint Patrick’s Breast Plate, a prayer of protection. It was on this occasion that he is supposed to have plucked a shamrock from the ground and used its three leaves and single stem to explain the doctrine of the Trinity. The struggle with the Pagans evidently also involved levitation and shape shifting. Colquhoun refers to the episode in The Crying of the Wind, p20-21.
Reference
Colquhoun, I. The Crying of the Wind: Ireland. Peter Owen, London, 1955.