Before and after, two Caravaggios.
In the foreground you see Imelda, she is facing the two paintings by Caravaggio. She is seated wearing a beige jacket and a denim baseball cap. Almost incognito if you didn’t know that she wasn’t famous. She has deliberately made the journey up to Belfast to enter the scene.. The photograph pitches her poised on a bench between both paintings. I imagine she would be ping ponging between the various visitors to each painting. Such as the following scene captured by the photograph.
There is an elderly couple standing in front of the painting on the left. And there is solitary man looking at the painting on the right. his black, grey and white tracksuit – with matching Adidas runners, and a tight fade around his skull combine to create a monochrome cut-out. In this black and white movie he is holding his i-phone up to the painting – The Taking of Christ by Caravaggio. With expert dexterity he is able to manage the phone single handedly, scroll and edit the photo, he leaves his left hand firmly ensconced in his left pocket. He could be cut out from the film La Haine. The scene where the three protagonists crash the launch of an exhibition. (Something I did once myself, I was dressed as a pirate, another story for another time.) The threat of betayal has a more currency in Belfast more than anywhere else in Ireland. Knee Cap. Stakeknife. Like the film it’s the social displacement within the strained conventions of the gallery, that mark him out more than the accidental colouring. He represents a reality which Caravaggio would have appreciated. I’m projecting here but hear me out. The gleam of a polished pauldron of a roman soldier connects with his jaw. The reflection reaches out beyond the viewer.
The painting on the left is Caravaggio’s Supper at Emmaus. A before and after but painted in reverse. It deals with Jesus after he has been crucified and he returns to have a picnic with ordinary folk. The couple on the left are also taking a photograph on their phone but they seem to hold the foreign object away and inspect the image with surprise if they manage to save the photo to the right file. Her electric pink leggings obstruct the view of a bowl of fruit, finely balanced on the edge of a table. This bowl plays an important role in the painting, it leans out of the canvass like a more measured version of the pauldron. I spot the walker before the woman. She must lean into the future all too often for her own liking.
Upon further examination, I believe the woman with the walker is also taking her own photo. I leant the woman agency, somehow she was involved in the process. Her concentration suggested it was a team effort. Instead the camera unseen explains her effort . It’s not visible but the concentration suggested by her posture and concentration suggested that she is holding a phone in front of her, held somewhere near her solar plexus.
II
Apparently the Taking of Christ had been hidden in plain sight. It had been deemed to have been a copy and adorned a wall in the Jesuit hall in Leeson Street from 1930 – 1990. Only when it had been cleaned did they discover it is an original. It had been given as a gift from Marie Lea Wilson to Fr Tom Finlay, SF. As a thank you for the support she received in processing the trauma she suffered. Her husband had been execu0ted on the IRA on the command of Michael Collins.
https://www.womensmuseumofireland.ie/exhibits/dr-marie-lea-wilson
Four years earlier the witness statement of Major General Liam Tobin, Director of Intelligence, I.R.A. noted that ‘Percival Lea-Wilson was responsible for having them [1916 Rebels] stripped as he was responsible for whatever ill-treatment was received there. I know that when he refused to allow me to stand up I looked at him and I registered a vow to myself that I would deal with him at some time in the future.’
https://www.irishfamilydetective.ie/post/the-taking-of-percival-lea-wilson
Gabriel’s Hospital in Dublin opened in 1951 under the clinical direction of Dr Monica Lea Wilson. (it is believed that connections enabled her to secure the position beyond her experience and skill). Contrary to contemporary medical opinion a regimen of very prolonged bed rest was enforced. From 1961 the family doctors became concerned at the adverse psychological effects of the unnecessarily prolonged hospital stay. Twenty-seven of the 56 inpatients were re-assessed. None of them showed any evidence of active rheumatic fever and their parents took them home.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23610223/
Rheumatic fever
Rheumatic fever primarily affects children and adolescents, most commonly between the ages of 5 and 15
Rheumatic fever (RF) is an inflammatory disease that can involve the heart, joints, skin, and brain.[1] The disease typically develops two to four weeks after a streptococcal throat infection.[2] Signs and symptoms include fever, multiple painful joints, involuntary muscle movements, and occasionally a characteristic non-itchy rash known as erythema marginatum.[1] The heart is involved in about half of the cases.[1] Damage to the heart valves, known as rheumatic heart disease (RHD), usually occurs after repeated attacks but can sometimes occur after one.[1] The damaged valves may result in heart failure, atrial fibrillation and infection of the valves.[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rheumatic_fever
On 6 November 1940, when aged 45, McQuaid was appointed Archbishop of Dublin. He took as his episcopal motto the phrase Testimonium Perhibere Veritati from John 18:37[11] – "to bear witness to the truth".[12]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Charles_McQuaid
