“Sanctus Christus de Capel y ffin”, David Jones 1925, Gouache on paper, ( 19.3cm X 13.3cm) Tate Collection.
This reproduction is just a bit smaller than the original. Although half their size, to my eye it is reminiscent of the exquisite crucifixion scenes that Bellini painted in the 1400’s. It dates from 1925 when David jones stayed at Capel y ffin, a location which this landscape closely resembles. The chapel on the left suggests the monastic building where he
and other artists stayed with the Gill family. He shows the conical mountain, Y Twmpa which stands across
the valley from Capel. Tree stumps evoke a world that knows only too well sacrifice and loss, while other trees remain, their bare branches now awaiting the arrival of a spring. The swollen river whispers the secret that is the life of the Spirit. The hills have that hue that is theirs after rain. The lone welsh pony reverences the single sacrifice at the heart of it all. Years later at the Requiem for David Jones in Westminster Cathedral, Primo Levi said, “David Jones understood better than the rest of us the sacrifice of the lamb. His experience in the 1914 war was terrible and it was deep. He understood and he needed what is offered at the stone of this altar and what is shared at the table of this altar and what is said and what is sung in the petrified forest of this church. His need was quite innocent, merely human, to do what has already been done once and for all on another hilltop, outside a different city, and also done many times from the beginning of mankind. In its reality and in its meaning that long series of sacrifices has not ended.” We celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross on Saturday.
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