“St Dominic”, David Jones, 1922, National Museum, Cardiff.
In the years after the end of the first world war, the artist David Jones felt increasingly drawn to Catholicism and the Mass. He became a Catholic in September 1921. By then he had come to know a guild of Catholic artists who were lay Dominicans, living and working at Ditchling Common, a bit north of Brighton. In January 1922 he left art college and moved there. At Ditchling Jones’ was greatly influenced by Dominican friars who were frequent visitors. He was put to live with two other young men in a converted carriage shed. It was damp and freezing cold. The three young men, who came across to the others as rather serious and sombre, were given the nickname “sorrowful mysteries”. Jones painted a number of religious scenes on the newly white washed walls of the shed including this “St Dominic”. Clearly, the style derives from cubism, but there is more to this work than its derivative style. What I like about this image is that the saint barely emerges from the wooden boards. Shortly before, Jones had been introduced to watercolour and he enjoyed not just that lightness of touch which the medium required, but its impermanence. Water colours will fade. Quite uncharacteristically, his St Dominic is bare foot. In Western art, bare feet were a sign of sanctity, and this may be the reason why the young Jones shows him bare foot. However, in the Dominican tradition, St Dominic is always shod. Perhaps, Jones had more to learn about St Dominic. After all at this stage he was only beginning to get to know the Order. In the years ahead, the thought of Thomas Aquinas would influence his own thinking deeply. But for now, it was all just beginning, and I think this work shows that tentative relationship, beautifully. St Dominic pray for us.
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