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Published by Green Pebble in conjunction with Christ’s College, CambridgeEditor Ruby Ormerod
www.greenpebble.co.uk
Christ's College Chapel UnveilsIts First Commission of Art in 500 Years
Easter Sunday (the 24th April) 2011 will be a very special occasion for Christ'sCollege Chapel in Cambridge University, as it unveils a new altar reredos by thecurrent Leverhulme Artist in Residence, Tom de Freston. This will be the fruition ofan exciting and developing collaboration, first imagined by Christopher Woods andPablo de Gandia (Tablo Arts) at the end of 2008. The paintings were conceived tomark the 500th anniversary (2010) of the chapel's consecration.
The service will be an Anglican Choral Evensong with special choral music by theCollege Choir. There will be readings from the Authorized King James Version ofthe Bible which is 400 years old this year. A sermon will be preached by the CollegeChaplain. In the course of the service, there will be an unveiling and dedication ofthe altarpiece and a short conversation between the Chaplain and Tom de Frestonabout the work of art.
This publication provides insight into the making, meaning and wider context of theworks, showing de Freston's studies and works on related themes. The range offigures who have contributed writing to this catalogue is testament to the signifi-cance of the project. Nicholas Serota provides a foreword, Rowan Williamsconsiders the spiritual relevance in de Freston's altarpiece paintings, GrahamHowes considers their relationship to the context of Christ's Chapel, Ruth Padelputs them into an art historical context and Jaya Savige gives insight into twoother paintings of de Freston's which tackle religion in a Miltonic form. Alongsidethis is a conversation between de Freston and Sir Anthony Caro, two interviewsby Pablo de Gandia with de Freston, and a specially-commissioned poemresponding to the chapel paintings by Kiran Millwood Hargrave.
Tom de Freston is the current Leverhulme Artist in Residence at CambridgeUniversity and Artist in Residence at the Leys. He has previously held the LevyPlumb Award at Christ's College, Cambridge. He is currently working on a bodyof paintings for the British Shakespeare Association to be exhibited at their annualconference in September 2011.
In 2011 Tom will have solo shows with HRL Contemporary and Tablo Arts inLondon. In addition, Tom will be curating and participating in a show at the RCA.
This year Tom has also launched a new academic website:www.tomdefreston.co.uk/tragedy.
All works by Tom de Freston unless otherwise stated.
© Tom de [email protected]
This Page:Detail of Deposition (a study), 2009, Oil on Canvas, 72 x 100cm
Nicholas SerotaForeword
Sir Anthony Caro in ConversationBy Tom de Freston
Ruth PadelDiscusses Tom de Freston’s Deposition
Pablo de GandiaInterviews Tom de Freston
Graham HowesFrom Seeing to Believing?
Pablo de GandiaInterviews Tom de Freston about death
Rowan WilliamsSpirituality in de Freston’s Deposition
Jaya SavigeDiscusses ‘The Seat of Desolation’Miltonic depth in the work of
Tom de Freston
Kiran Millwood HargraveSurfacing - A Poem
Revd Christopher WoodsWords of commendation
from the Chaplain of Christ's College
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Previous Page, LeftDeposition (left hand panel), 2010, oil on canvas, 190 x 115cmPrevious Page, RightDeposition (right hand panel), 2010, oil on canvas, 190 x 115cmLeftDeposition (insitu at Christ's College Chapel), 2010, oil on canvas, 190 x 115cmThis pageDeposition (insitu at Christ's College Chapel), 2010, oil on canvas, 190 x 115cm
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2010 marked the 500th anniver-sary of consecration of theChapel at Christ's. The anniver-sary is to be celebrated by theinstallation of two new site-specific altarpiece paintings onthe theme of the Deposition madeby the young contemporary his-tory painter, Tom de Freston.
The paintings have beendesigned to respond to the uniquespatial, spiritual and aestheticdemands of the Chapel and thesubject of the Deposition hasbeen chosen to complement thepresence in the antechapel of SirAnthony Caro's sculpture on thesame theme.
Caro is one of our country'smost admired artists and theCollege Chapel is a space ofgreat importance and history, botharchitecturally and spiritually. Fora young artist such as Tom deFreston to have been afforded
such a commission is a hugecredit to him, his work and theCollege. The way in whichChrist's has embraced contempo-rary art in this manner is unusual,but reflects both an understand-ing of the role art can play inworship and the long history ofthe involvement of the Collegewith the visual arts.
De Freston's paintings normallyexplore themes of Tragedy incontemporary painting, with hismost recent body of worksdrawing directly from Shake-speare's plays and Milton'sParadise Lost. In his altarpiecepaintings, the multiple figures,narrative and interior space seenin his literary paintings have beensacrificed in order to create a dip-tych which responds to the spe-cific challenges of the Chapelcommission. Each painting showsa single figure hovering between
ForewordBy Nicholas Serota
Opposite page:Deposition study2009oil on board30 x 20cm
This page:Swimmer of Lethe2010oil on canvas190 x 130cm
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dark columns. As such, thefigures seem to exist in direct re-lation to the space of the Chapelitself. The placing of the figures,choice of colours and the senseof self-reflexive light all disclosede Freston's interest in a historyof images that were also impor-tant to Caro, notably Rembrandtand Rubens. The solid geometryof the paintings and the hoveringforms show an acute understand-ing of the construction of spaceand form. De Freston's canvases,whilst structurally similar to eachother, are a dialogue of opposi-tions, in which he explores boththe fleshy, weighty pathos of theDeposition, and the etherealweightlessness and hope of theResurrection.
Caro's sculpture and deFreston's paintings are confirma-tion that contemporary art is stillable to offer a new and engagingreflection on themes that havefascinated artists for centuries.
The responses to the workspublished in this catalogue aretestament to their achievementin giving eternal questions con-temporary form.
This catalogue reveals aseries of conversations; betweentwo works of art, between theworks and the austere beauty ofthe Chapel, and between the twoworks and earlier works that takethe Deposition as their theme.
These conversations provokea rich engagement with faithand spirituality. That the 500thAnniversary of the Chapel hasafforded an opportunity not justto look back but also to look to thepresent and the future is animpressive achievement. Theinstallation of de Freston andCaro's work creates a harmo-nious celebration in a Chapelwhere art, architecture, prayerand music come together toprovide a deeply movingspiritual experience.
Nicholas SerotaDirector, Tate
Nicholas Serota has been Director ofTate since 1988. Since then Tate hasopened Tate St Ives (1993) and TateModern (2000), redefining the Millbankbuilding as Tate Britain (2000). Tate hasalso broadened its field of interest toinclude twentieth-century photography,film, performance and occasionallyarchitecture, as well as collecting fromLatin America, Asia and the Middle East.As a curator, his most recent exhibitionshave been Donald Judd and Cy Twomblyat Tate Modern and Howard Hodgkin atTate Britain.
Study of Falling, 2008Monoprint on paper30 x 20cm
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‘Art is often sourced by religiousthemes. Art is best appreciated inquiet contemplative situations, asin religion.’-Sir Anthony Caro (AC)
Sir Anthony Caro’s recent visitto Christ’s (in conversation withTim Marlow and Dr. CarolineVout) showed him to be anarticulate, warm and eloquentspeaker, but not one who feels aneed to justify his work throughloquacious philosophy.
‘Artists make sculptures andpaintings.The words about theirwork and their practice areunnecessary and are bestanswered by critics and writerson art.’ (AC)
Sir Anthony Caro’s Deposition isa masterpiece, but remains oneof the less well-known works inthe oeuvre of Britain’s finest livingsculptor. Caro was the sculptorresponsible for dragging Westernsculpture out of the constraints of
figuration and towards abstrac-tion. Yet, over the past twodecades his work has regularlymade returns to figuration. TheDeposition is one such work.Caro’s sculpture hits you the mo-ment you enter the antechapel,and I wanted to provide a similarvisual fulcrum to the Chapel.Gushing writers and artists aretiresome, but I cannot overstatewhat a privilege it has been tomake paintings which will exist indirect relation to this greatsculpture.
‘The Deposition is a tendersubject and the sculpture inthe antechapel speaks in a minorkey. The dead body is being letdown from the cross in a windingsheet and wrapped for burial.Mourners surround the scene.’(AC)
We become one of thesemourners. By existing in realspace and relating to our size,it turns us into a witness figure,
Sir Anthony Caro in ConversationBy Tom de Freston
Sir Anthony CaroDeposition(In situ at Christ's Collegeante-chapel)2001Bronze and brass
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like those which exist within theframe in many of Rembrandt’sDeposition images. Caro ac-knowledges his references:
‘Rubens’ great painting in AntwerpCathedral and Rembrandt’s littlepainting now in Munich bothserved as inspiration.’ (AC)
It is these two painters who alsohad a profound impact upon mypaintings. The shift from paintingto sculpture (and in my case backthe other way) is an interestingone. What is clear in Caro’ssculpture, and I hope in my paint-ings, is that this inspiration isalways filtered through a processwhich puts the unique tendenciesof the artist’s own medium at thecentre of their practice.
In both of our cases, ClementGreenberg’s philosophy has im-pacted upon the process (inCaro’s case through a close rela-tionship with the American critic).
Caro spoke to me of a processled by his materials:
‘I work directly with the material.The sculpture is made in bronze
and brass sheet, forged andhammered in soft folds andwelded together ,as with all threedimensional collages. They arenot cast or decided-on inadvance from sketches ormaquettes.’ (AC)
The ‘loose shapes’ play against a‘geometric structure’, describingthe descent of the figure acrossspace. This process is notdescribed, but instead evoked, bythe mechanics of the work. Carostates:
‘The Deposition’ is not a literalrepresentation, but it suggeststhe subject. Such work requiresthe onlooker to fill the gaps ashe/she feels. This is the way thatpoetry is read; it asks for anactive contribution from thereader. Like the music in thechapel, I hope this sculpture willhelp to induce a mood ofreflection.’ (AC)
Sir Anthony Caro’s sculpturecertainly achieves this. I can onlyhope that my paintings in someway contribute to this quiet moodof spirituality and contemplation.
Sir Anthony CaroSir Anthony Caro (born 1924) has playeda pivotal role in the development oftwentieth century sculpture. After studyingsculpture at the Royal Academy Schoolsin London, he worked as assistant toHenry Moore. He came to public attentionwith a show at the Whitechapel Gallery in1963 and has had major retrospectives atthe Museum of Modern Art, New York(1975); the Trajan Markets, Rome (1992);the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo(1995); Tate Britain, London (2005); and inthree museums in Pas-de-Calais, France(2008). His work has consistently providedpoints of radical departure for thedevelopments of three-dimensional art.He was knighted in 1987 and received theOrder of Merit in May 2000.
This Page:Deposition study2009Pen on paper30 x 25cm
Opposite Page:Sir Anthony CaroDeposition(In situ at Christ's College ante-chapel)2001Bronze and brass
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Sombre colours, the unchangingpale and dark of naked humanbodies facing the shadows theymust face, for a chapel whosewooden panels have hiddenhollows and shadows of its own.
A ladder and a cross – and ahuman figure on the ground,looking at them. A young figurefalling in a brown rush of air orperhaps water. Is it drowning? Orstruggling up to the surface, tosome light we cannot see?
Together and separately, thetwo panels of Tom de Freston’sDeposition, created for Christ’sCollege Chapel, will pose impor-tant questions for us all to answerdifferently, at different times,during prayer, music and service.Like Rembrandt’s portraits, orGoya’s figures trapped in night,they ask us to think about theway we are all, in different ways,set against the dark. In ourenvironment; in how we look atthings (like that ladder, and theleaning rungs we shall all haveto climb in our time); and in howwe live – headlong, falling andstruggling, up and down.
Christ on the Cross is presentin each panel differently, as areminding metaphor, a future tocontemplate, but also in the
struggle we have now, living ourlives in our bodies and also in ourpsyches: a relation with the darkwhich W. H. Auden evoked in hisElegy for Sigmund Freud, whenhe imagined the figures of theunconscious as creatures ofnight:About him ’till the very end
were stillthose he had studied, the
fauna of the night,and shades that still waited to
enterthe bright circle of his
recognition…but he would have us
remember most of allto be enthusiastic over the
night,not only for the sense of
wonderit alone has to offer, but alsobecause it needs our love…Tom de Freston’s colours here
match the serene browns of thechapel. But the chestnutty tingeand bubbled texture give them ahuman warmth, and an energywhich speaks to the Chapel’shistory, this building which haschanged so much in five hundredyears to become the tranquilchapel and antechapel of today,but which began as a much
Ruth PadelDiscusses Tom de Freston’s Deposition
Opposite Page:Deposition study2009Oil on canvas72 x 100cm
This Page:Study after Rembrandt2009Pen on paper30 x 20cm
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larger single space surroundedby bare pink brick. And whoseunique inward-looking windowand secret stair, built for awoman to observe and receivemass, reminds us of crucial chap-ters in the Ninth Book of StAugustine’s Confessions.
St Augustine describes how hestood with his mother a few daysbefore she died, looking througha window. His words are wonder-ful images for what it is like, tocome and sit in a chapel, to listenand think, what one comes to achapel for – all the things whichthese altar pieces help us ponder.
‘Removed from the crowd,’says Augustine, he and hismother were ‘resting after the fa-tigues of a long journey.’ Hismother had been agonized by hisapostasy and felt her life fulfilledwhen he converted. They dis-cussed wisdom, ‘just touching herwith the whole effort of ourhearts.’ Side by side, looking out
of that window, they ‘came at lastto our own minds and wentbeyond them.’ They imaginedwhat it would be like, if ‘the tumultof the flesh were silenced; andthe phantoms of earth and watersand air were silenced; and thepoles were silent as well; indeed,if the very soul grew silent toherself, and went beyond herselfby not thinking of herself.’
Tom de Freston’s sketches forthe chapel project fulfil brilliantlywhat we need from any backdropto an altar. Their images areabout the flesh but also how to gobeyond it. How, as Augustinesays, to ‘come to your own mindand go beyond’. How one mightpicture ‘the tumult of the flesh si-lenced, the soul going beyond it-self, not thinking of itself.’ Themore you look, the more there isto think about what lies ahead,how we live in our bodies andour minds, and how we deal withthe dark.
Ruth PadelRuth Padel is a Fellow of the RoyalSociety of Literature and the Zoologi-cal Society of London. She is a prize-winning poet, formerly a Greek scholarand recently Chair of the UK PoetrySociety. Her latest poetry collection,Darwin – A Life in Poems, is a journeyin lyric poems through Darwin’s lifeand work. Her non-fiction includesbooks on Greek tragedy, Greek mythand rock music, tiger conservation andreading modern poetry.
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Pablo de Gandia of Tablo Artshas curated three de Frestonsolo shows, most recentlyExiles at the Brick LaneGallery. It was Pablo and theChaplain who first formulatedthe idea of the chapel project.Here Pablo asks Tom somequestions relating to the paint-ings and his broader treatmentof spirituality.
Pablo de Gandia: So, the chapelpaintings, I cannot recall anotherimage which depicts the descentand rise of Christ in such a way.You have succeeded in finding anappropriate and original way ofrepresenting the full cycle andhuman drama of the deposition.However, the chapel paintings
are remarkable within the scopeof your opus in that the irony andcynical wit is absent. So, why nosocks and boxer shorts?
Tom de Freston: Context. Thesepaintings must function in adialogue with the aesthetic andspiritual significance of the chapel.The socks and boxers are adevice to strip a character of hisheroism and gravitas, the veryvalues I want to remain present inthese paintings.
PdG: In other paintings, yourcharacters come to life spirituallybecause their gravitas is shat-tered and you only leave theviewer with a bare vision ofhumanity. The failure of their
Pablo de GandiaInterviews Tom de Freston
Opposite Page:Deposition study2009Oil on board35 x 25cm
This Page:Last of the seducer2010Oil on Elmwood33 x 23cm(approx)
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heroics is what makes them human.Why this obsession with failure; withthe fall?
TdF: Painting is inherently aboutfailure, particularly contemporarypainting. In a less cynical, moreromanticised way, the chapel paint-ings also play with the tensionspresent in the very structure ofpainting.
PdG: Your characters are oftenstripped of heroism and spirituality.
Is this a dimension you see inhumanity in general?
TdF: At points yes; when peopleconvert ideologies into functionalstructures, with an institutionalisedjustification, on moral or spiritualgrounds. I want to present the struc-ture but to reveal it as bankrupt.
PdG: Is there not a contradictionbetween this desire and that in yourchapel paintings?
TdF: No. I don’t want to create abody of work which is singular in itsapproach or reading. This work isnot supportive of any institutionalform of ideology but searches forpathos in the very human themes ofsuffering and hope.
Pablo de Gandia is a Phd candidateat King’s College London (Interna-tional Relations faculty). He is the cofounder of Tablo Arts.www.tablo.co.uk.
'Can then our college chapels bemade still more useful for thespiritual advancement of our-selves and our pupils ?' askedthe Reverend C.A.Swanson,Fellow and Tutor of Christs, in1850.
Although posed over a hun-dred and sixty years ago (as partof an eccentric and intemperateattack on Great St Mary's, theUniversity Church, as a rivalattraction), his question hasequal resonance today. It raisesnot only caveats concerningthe precise role of nominallyAnglican college chapels withinan increasingly pluralist, post-Christian, culture, but also largerquestions concerning the relativemarginality of Christianity withinthe communal and credal life ofall Oxbridge colleges.
In the college which nurturedJohn Milton, Charles Darwin andRowan Williams, both questionsremain especially acute. Putdifferently, should the chapelitself primarily embody theinstitutional presence of theEstablished Church, continuing
to act as a locus for minorityritual practice, or should it serveprimarily as a 'space' for personalreflection and renewal? Suchquestions are hardly novel, butthey represent themselves withespecial relevance when, as atChrists, in 2011, new art work isnow incorporated into the existingfabric.
Here, the track record of mostCambridge chapels has been anuneven, and at times unhappy,one. For example, at Emmanuel,Sidney Sussex, Clare and TrinityHall, artistic input and architec-tural settings have been satisfac-torily elided, with Mannerismand Rococo encountering Neo-Classicism with varying degreesof success. At Queens, however,the re-setting of a mid-15thcentury German triptych in a lateVictorian reredos is surely amixed blessing, while at King's,Rubens' quintessentially BaroqueAdoration remains in uneasy,even dissonant, juxtaposition toits High Perpendicular setting.
A tourist attraction can alsoharbour visual discord. Perhaps
Graham HowesFrom Seeing to Believing?
Opposite Page:Expulsion, Expulsion2010Oil on canvas180 x 120cm
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Opposite Page:Deposition study2010Oil on board36 x 25cm
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only at Robinson, where Piper'sglass glows numinously amid aus-tere russet brickwork, does an art-work really seem to resonate withinits own sacred space.
At Christ's, the current challengeis especially daunting. Not only isthe original chapel's 'dim religiouslight' – that once dissolved Milton'into ecstasies' – still further diffusedand absorbed by the heavy-dutypanelling (Austin, 1701-4) that nowdominates both chapel and ante-chapel, but equally intimidating isthe powerful post-Restoration rere-dos, adorned not only with coupledCorinthian columns, but toppedwith UNUM CORPUS ET UNUMSPIRITUS on its cornice, itselfsurmounted by a large green andgold cartouche dutifully inscribedSURSUM CORDA.
Rarely has the primacy of Wordover Image (so integral to post-Restoration Protestant aesthetics)been visually articulated with suchpotent specificity.
A third visual complication is the'presence' (in two senses!) of theextravagant and eye-catching dou-ble memorial of 1684, in black andwhite marble, to Sir Thomas Bainesand Sir John Finch. This not onlyabuts the reredos, but its relativelyovert statement of male amitieamoreuse provides an uncomfort-able counterpoint to the unadornedchastity of the reredos itself.
Finally, the antechapel throughwhich one enters provides a ratherdisconcerting contrast betweenits highly-ordered, near-rectangular,
space, staked out with fourCorinthian columns on panelledpedestals, and the comparative dis-order of its contents, which includea concert piano, a large woodenchest, and a small, undistinguished,modern icon. A homely, cluttered,communal memory bank.
Hence, both spaces seem, insome ways, uninviting, indeed un-likely, sites for additional art work,and they clearly present seriousvisual challenges to any contempo-rary artist. Yet, against these odds,something almost miraculous hastaken place. Both segments of thechapel are now transformed by twodistinctive, yet subtly interactive,neo-Mannerist statements for a de-cidedly post-Mannerist generation.
In the antechapel Anthony Caro'simmensely powerful sculpture,Deposition, immediately confrontsone directly across the crowdedrectangle. Its strong trace elements,drawn from both Rubens' majestic,theatrical Descent from the Crossin Antwerp, and Rembrandt'stender, haunting, Deposition nowin Munich, effectively project adramatized Christology which some-how never topples over into gratu-itous melodrama. Its power andphysicality are both corporeal andsubliminal.
In the main chapel the two, for-merly blank, panels of the reredosnow contain Tom de Freston's ownreworking of two core componentsof Christian iconography – one(shared with Caro) of Christ's depo-sition, the other of His (and our)
baptism and regeneration. If onestands at the epicentre of the ante-chapel, both works can be viewedeither simultaneously, or sequen-tially. The effect is extraordinary.Both artists not only give newdynamism (one is tempted to saynew life) to what was hitherto arather static, underpowered, almostde-sacralized space. The latter isnow totally transformed, as is ourown experience of it.
Both artists also re-invoke two ofthe most highly charged narrativeand symbolic images in the entirerepertoire of Christian iconongra-phy. Although with, one suspects,very different mindsets and usingdiffering, yet complementary, media(the solid bronze and brass of Caro,and the delicate tempera of deFreston) they take the viewer farbeyond mere nostalgia prompted byan evocative temporal narrative,and towards a confrontation withsomething potentially eternal.
In this sense both works relateto each other not merely byre-invoking a shared mythology,but by seizing and creating a re-newed opportunity (for believerand non-believer alike) to transforman overtly aesthetic experience intoa potentially religious one. TheReverend Swanson would surelyhave been delighted!
Graham Howes is an EmeritusFellow of Trinity Hall, a Trusteeof ACE (Art and ChristianityEnquiry), and author of The Artof the Sacred (I.B.Tauris, 2007).
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Pablo de Gandia asks some more questions, thistime about death in de Freston’s work.
Pablo de Gandia: Death of an Englishman, despite deFreston-esque sock and boxers, contains a pathos thatclosely mimics that which is created in the chapel paint-ings. The naked, visceral flesh, the agile yet terminalgesture and pose, not to mention the suggestedinformalism of the scenario all set in a framework ofoppositions. Would you define this relationship asbinary, is there a scale in your work in the treatment ofdeath?
TdF: There are qualities that are binary; the semanticsof the space, for instance, a dialogue between activeand empty space. The relationship between the paint-
ing and the Robert Capa photograph it appropriatesis also binary. But I think painting never speaksexclusively within a binary scale, it is often morefragmentary, a series of relative values.
PdG: Death in your work is often approached througha form of ridicule that could risk being interpreted asmorbid. Why walk this fine line?
TdF: Ridicule is a useful device to expose the empti-ness of meaning, values or pathos in an image. It is theexposure of this emptiness which, paradoxically, canopen up the sign to gain new significance. It is acynical wit which seems typically English.
PdG: You explore death from a detached perspective in
Pablo de GandiaInterviews Tom de Freston about death
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Opposite Page:Death of an Englishman2010Oil on canvas180 x 120cm
This Page:Death of Poirot2010Oil on canvas180 x 120cm
a few paintings. Is this an interplay of formative im-ages (say, from police investigations) or is it as suchthe perfect death?
TdF: The perfect death or the perfect crime? A paint-ing detaches a moment from the temporal se-quence, and as such makes the cause and effectimpossible to fully relocate. Some of these imagesappropriate police photographs, which have thatstrange, passive viewpoint, intended to record in-formation free of any dramatic intention. Other im-ages have this perspective in mind but are scenesthat I stage and then record through photography.In all cases, the relationship between the photo-graphic source and the painting is one where thede-contextualised image no longer speaks of the
narrative values held in the photograph.
PdG: Does a perfect death have to include ironyand how does this relate to your treatment of Christ?
TdF: No, irony is one device. The chapel paintingslack irony, but still function on a play of relativevalues. The left panel has all the figural mechanicsof Christ on the cross, but the cross, ladder, witnessfigures and spatial settings are removed. The twopanels are intended to explore the two sides ofdeath; the weight of flesh slowly descending andhope of a rise and spirituality which transcends theboundaries of the body.
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The decoration of many Oxbridgecollege chapels is fairly austere,and Christ's is no exception. Butoften it is precisely against amuted and restrained back-ground that an artistic work mayspeak most eloquently, unclut-tered by the merely decorative.That is very clearly what Tom deFreston's panels achieve in thisspace where worship has beenoffered for 500 years.
The theme of the Deposition,the taking down of Jesus' bodyfrom the cross, was a regular onefor the great painters of theMiddle Ages and afterwards. Itposed not only a technical butalso a theological challenge.Technically, there were anatomi-cal matters to get right; the sheerinterest of visually managing thevarious physical tensions in-volved in shifting a dead bodydown from a height. Sometimesit allowed a painter – like Van derWeyden – to do remarkablethings with the composition offigures, so that the droopingcorpse of the Saviour is visually'echoed' by the body of the VirginMary as she faints with grief. But
the theological challenge isno less serious: how does thisparticular image suggest that thedead body being handled andtidied up for burial is not justanother cadaver?
Van der Weyden's 'echo' is oneway, implying that the patternestablished in the death of Jesusis one that shapes the lives andexperiences of those closest tohim, those who have lived byfaith in him. But there are otherways.
De Freston's solution is apowerful and original one: it is(put very simply) to juxtapose apassive and an active image in aphysical medium that seems tobe like deep water. A body drops,passively, losing its controlledshape against the resistance ofthe water: the limbs stray, thehead is down. A body rises, push-ing through the depths and, as itwere, shedding bubbles of breathand trails of light, moving withimmense, almost agonised,energy towards the surface of thewater. But the contrast betweenactive and passive is not a crudeone. The first image also evokes
Rowan WilliamsSpirituality in de Freston’s Deposition
Opposite Page:The Wait of Flesh2010Oil on canvas190 x 140cm
This Page:Deposition study (from triptych)
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a deliberate journey into darkness,the limbs having a suggestion ofwalking where you can only feel,not see, your way. And the effortand anguish of the upward thrust inthe second panel reminds us thatthis action is inseparable from thepassion, the sacrifice.
This draws on the whole historicassociation of the death and resur-rection of Jesus with descent intowatery chaos, the chaos that ex-isted before the Word and the Spiritbring light and life, as recorded inGenesis 1 - and so too the associa-tion with baptism as our rescuefrom chaos by the descent of Jesusinto these waters. The Church ofEngland's baptismal service speaks
of 'the deep waters of death' whereJesus meets us.
Like any Christian shrine, thischapel is centred upon the paradoxof a God who changes the world byhis passivity, his suffering. Both thereality of the suffering and the radi-cal power of the change have to beheld in mind and heart, and it is thisparadox that is celebrated at Easter- which is why it is right that the in-stallation of these panels should bein the context of this festival, theheart of all Christian faith.
Dr Rowan WilliamsRowan Williams has beenArchbishop of Canterbury since2002. He was born in 1950 and
brought up in Swansea. From1984-86 he was Dean andChaplain at Clare College,Cambridge, and then from 1986to 1992 he was Lady MargaretProfessor of Divinity at Oxford.He served as Bishop ofMonmouth from 1992 andArchbishop of Wales from 2000.Dr Williams is a Fellow of theBritish Academy and is the au-thor of several books of theol-ogy; he is also a frequentbroadcaster. He is married toJane, a writer and teacher; theyhave two children.
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From an elevated perspective,the figures in Tom de Freston'sThe Fall of the Rebel Angels (seenext page) might be laid out ona conveyer-belt, ferried likehomogenised, factory-producedbodies for packaging. Read top-to-bottom, they plummet as ifdown a sewerage pipe, flushedlike refuse from an heavenlycistern.
Nine days and nights it takesfor the rebel angels in Milton'sParadise Lost to plunge ‘head-long from the Pitch of Heaven’through the abyss into the depthsto hell, after their unsuccessfulcoup against God (I. 50, VI. 871;II.772). Milton's rendition of depthis what the Romantic poets mighthave called sublime, at the limitsof human comprehensibility. Theword ‘deep’ appears with insis-tent frequency in Milton's epic,where it is accompanied bya litany of enhancing modifiersthat emphasise the sublimityof the fall: vast, boundless, hol-low, abhorred, hoarie, frighted,foaming.
In his 2009 exhibition, Reflec-tions, Tom de Freston revealedan ongoing concern with the fall– the biomechanics of the fallingbody, the eschatalogy of thefallen spirit or soul – in his Depo-
sition altarpieces, and in myriadother canvasses (e.g. Icarus,Him Who Wanted to Fall) andmonoprints (e.g. Study of Falling).
In The Fall of the Rebel AngelsandWhere the Hell Are We? (seenext page), two new workscompleted as part of a Lever-hulme fellowship, de Frestontransposes his ongoing investi-gation of this theme into a literarykey, by explicitly responding toMilton's epic.
These canvasses form acontinuum with the earlier work,but they also mark a crucial,conceptual point of departure.This can be seen by comparingthem with a formally similar work,Fast Judgement (see image thispage), a canvas dominated by anoppressive sky that clamourswith copulating and falling bod-ies, beneath which two figurespose on a yellow road – one inthe foreground, beckoning theviewer; the other facing away andprostrate in the distance.
Whereas the sky-bound motleycrew in Fast Judgement remainsessentially inchoate, carnaland haphazard, the figures in TheFall of the Rebel Angels andWhere the Hell Are We? havebecome hermetically sealed(though problematically so in the
Jaya SavigeDiscusses ‘The Seat of Desolation’:Miltonic depth in the work of Tom de Freston
Opposite Page:Swimmer2008Pen on paper29 x 19cm
This Page:Fast Judgment2009Oil on paper200 x 150cm
[N]ot, please! to resembleThe beasts who repeat
themselves,..
W.H. Auden,In Praise of Limestone
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DEPOSITION: A NEW INSTALLATIONat
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latter), sterilised and, perhaps mostimportantly, serialised; replicable.
For de Freston, Milton's hell hasnow become ‘flattened, geometri-cized, ordered’ - to use the words ofRosalind Krauss. With a nod to theornamental grammar of WilliamMorris' wallpapers, and a wink atthe pop-opacity of Warhol's Marilynscreenprints, de Freston's rebelangels are indeed serialised; petri-fied in a series of infernal pilatesposes. They are condemned, likethose figures of divine retribution,Prometheus or Sisyphus, to enduretheir abysmal lot in perpetuity; orlike those ‘beasts that repeat them-selves’ that so terrify Auden in InPraise of Limestone.
And yet, de Freston inherentlychallenges what Krauss calls‘modern art's will to silence, itshostility to literature, to narrative, todiscourse.’ While he is evidentlyaware of what Clement Greenbergfamously called the ‘medium speci-ficity’ of his art – the material para-dox inherent in both the fact of theflatness of the canvas and theperspectival illusion of depth – deFreston neither submits entirely tothe siren song of the surface(ornament or abstraction), norasserts the priority of illusory depth(perspective); rather, he plays uponthis tension, holding surface anddepth in a suspended (and sus-penseful), dialectical relationship.
As we saw at the outset, thesecanvases can be read either per-spectivally or as self-consciouslyflat, aware of their materiality; that
is, from side-on, or from above. Inone sense, then, the idea of depthis itself the subject of these works,as de Freston transposes hisconcern with the fall not only into aliterary key, but a painterly one. Forde Freston, Milton simultaneouslyevokes the tyranny of the surfaceand the chimera of depth, amanichean conflict that defines bothhis vision and his art.
And what could be more aesthet-ically endemic, more representa-tively hellish in an age where theline between surface and depthhas, in the eyes of many, becomeso utterly obfuscated by rampantcommodity fetishism and politicaldisinformation? It is worth recallingthat Paradise Lost, which concernsa civil war (in heaven), was writtenduring a time of civil war; and thatde Freston, riffing here on thethemes of surface and depth inlate 2010, is doing so during atime of civil unrest and the quasi-Luciferean rebellion (in the name oftransparency) of Julian Assangeand Wikileaks.
Whereas the figures in RebelAngels swivel in a greyish milky-blue through the darker, earthytones drawn from the Depositioncanvases, the palette of Where theHell is altogether more searing.Here, the fallen writhe in a concoc-tion of stinging mustard, turmericand ginger, an eye-wateringlyradioactive curry-paste built uponan autumnal ochre base (indeedthe colour of Fall). Satan's pres-ence, central, almost serene,
underscores his absence in RebelAngels, which presents a preindi-viduated state. Less cadaverousthan his jaundiced minions, heechoes the deposition of Christ,yet is ultimately modern, ironic,not quite shrugging but neitherembracing the infernal air. Thesefailed coupsters are truly, utterly‘vanquished, rolling in the fiery gulf’of ‘livid flame’ (PL I. 52, 182).
‘The cistern contains; the foun-tain overflows.’ So writes Blake inhis Proverbs of Hell, and whosevision of Hell wrenches all thosethat have gone before – Virgil,Dante, Milton – into modernity, byexposing the nature of the dialecti-cal relation itself. In Where theHell?, de Freston's rebel angelsspill out of their confines, theirspectral presences haunting thepseudo-margins of the canvas.Taken together, these works com-prise a meditation on the dialecticsof opacity and transparency,surface and depth, so pertinent notonly to the Miltonic fall, to that‘dreary plain, forlorn and wild, / Theseat of desolation, void of light’(I. 180-81), but to the artist's own.
Jaya Savige is the author of Late-comers (2005) and Poetry Editor ofThe Australian. His poetry appearsin the Penguin Anthology ofAustralian Poetry (2008) and TheBest Australian Poems (2010). Heis a PhD candidate in English andGates Scholar at Christ's College,Cambridge.
Previous Page, Left:Fall of the Rebel Angels2010oil on canvas200 x 150
Previous Page, Right:Where the Hell are we?2010Oil on canvas200 x 150cm
This Page:An image from Gustave Doré’s Paradise Lost.By kind permission of the Master, Fellows, andScholars of Christ's College, Cambridge
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Surfacing
byKiran Millwood Hargrave
The fisherman casts his nets wideAnd weights them, metal glinting in golden light,
Flesh shows through fish-bone twineAs his catch sways murky deep, silverbacked in sun.
…
So too, when left too deep, the body.Brown, flat, falling back
Sinking under the weight of the worldand all its sins.
ThenOn that silent night
Holy light.
And so too , right close to the light,Skin seems red, yellow, blue,
Or brown, falls back the darkness andRises up the weight of the Word.
NowIs the time
To live naked.
This poem was commissioned by Tom de Freston for this project.
Kiran is a published poet and final year Cambridge student, who edited Ekphrasis, a collection of fifteen poetsresponding to the work of Tom de Freston. Kiran is currently working on a body of poems relating toShakespeare’s plays, commissioned by the British Shakespeare Association.
Image: Deposition study, 2009, Acrylic on paper, 30 x 20cm
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Commissioning a new art workfor a place of worship is anexciting, yet daunting, project. Itdemands preparation, planningand enthusiasm from many par-ties. The reredos, or altarpiece,which Tom de Freston has beenworking on for some time, invarious guises, is a stark,dramatic and disturbing fruit oftalent, passion and labour oflove.
The implications of such awork are manifold and as sooften with art, there are endlesspossibilities of meaning, inter-pretation and inspiration in thetime during which the diptych isinstalled above the altar inChrist's College Chapel.
None of these will becomeapparent until after EasterSunday 2011. From that pointon, those who worship, pray, sit,read, sing, make music or visitthis sacred space can engagewith a new creation. A newdynamism and fresh expressionof spirituality is made manifestwith the installation of Deposi-tion and Resurrection. Therewill be questions, there will beintrigue, there will be shock,there will be amazement. All ofthis is good and right and thereis no better a place for suchemotion to be borne out than in
the house of God.The theme of the paintings
engages deeply with the rootsand history of Christ's: the Col-lege is dedicated to our LordJesus Christ and the custom ofmaintaining a 'feast of title' or'patronal festival' is kept in thisCollege on Easter Day itself -the Day of Resurrection.
Of course, Deposition andResurrection are closely en-twined. And in this Chapel, wehave had the great Caro sculp-ture of The Deposition in ourmidst for ten years.
Now, in 2011 we have thede Freston altarpiece: newreflection for our time on thehuman reality of falling to thedepths of despair, yet risingagain abundantly to life andhope again.
Tom is to be thanked andpraised for his graciousness,enthusiasm and above all hisGod-given talent.
Revd Christopher Woods hasbeen Chaplain and Director ofstudies in Theology of Christ'sCollege since 2007. In August2010, Christopher leavesChrist's and will work as theChurch of England's NationalWorship Adviser and Secretaryof its Liturgical Commission.
Words of commendation fromthe Chaplain of Christ's College,the Revd Christopher Woods
Deposition study (detail)2010Acrylic on board35 x 25cm
