ADAM, nd
Oil on panel. 12¾ x 8¾in. (33 x 22.7cm.)
Inscribed on the reverse with the artist’s name and the title.
Provenance
National Trust bequest.
A bearded male head, viewed frontally, the features outlined in white, the left eye and socket in gold and the right in silver.
The colours of the eyes provide the necessary information to place this work in its alchemical and quabalistic contexts. It reflects Colquhoun's abiding interests in duality, androgyny and mystical Christianity.
In colour symbolism, yellow represents the sun and signifies the male principal sol. It also signifies God. Silver represents the moon, the female principal, luna, and stands for humanity. The unification of sol and luna is the objective of the alchemical quest, which, once achieved, resolves the polarities of God and man; spirit and flesh and male and female.
According to the Zohar the word Adam implies both male and female. The two genders were combined in him, indicating his prelapsarian perfection, were separated by the Fall and reunited in the person of Christ, the Second Adam.