Rose Wognum Frances

Malta:

I am the First and the Last

Paint on canvas and wood, stitched drawing on transparent fabric overlay, sculpted clay vessel, copper 30”H x 11”W x 4”D Archaeomythology Series #1 2000

The central painting is of the Creatrix, the darkness moving on the face of the deep, the Black Madonna. She is overlaid by a drawing depicting the outline of a Neolithic Maltese temple, as seen from above, stitched on transparent fabric. The lobed shapes of the megalithic temples resemble the bodies of women bringing forth new life. Below her is a painting of a clay figure of a dreaming woman, found in the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum, from 3300 BCE  The Hypogeum temple is completely underground, carved from the living bedrock. The painting of the dreaming figure is overlaid with a drawing, stitched on transparent fabric, of red spirals like those found painted on the walls of the Hypogeum, deep beneath the earth. In the arch above, I painted an oculi altar from a Maltese temple, with an offering.  In front of the altar is a clay pot, a miniature of a large vessel found in the megalithic temple at Tarxien,, dated 3000-2500 BCE. I lined the tiny pot with red ochre, an ancient offertory substance.  

 
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