Joyous colour and light - Josh Anderson

For the month of November, the Holy Spirit Chapel at Newman College in Melbourne became an art gallery. On display were eight of Arthur Boyd’s tapestries of St Francis of Assisi. The Australian Jesuits exhibited the tapestries to mark their relationship with the Franciscan order and to celebrate its 800th anniversary.

Boyd’s series depict the life and spiritual journey of St Francis, which started with a youthful dream of luxury and finished with a vision of spiritual passion. Apart from a brief display at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1979, this is the first full scale exhibition of the tapestries. Commissioned and woven between 1972 and 1974, they were stored at the National Gallery in Canberra for over 30 years. Fr Bill Uren sj, rector of Newman, explained the historical links between the Jesuits and St Francis: ‘When St Ignatius was recovering from the injuries he received in battle, he meditated on St Francis, and experienced a deep desire to emulate his life and work … The theme of our Advent Festival was Franciscan, and it was a way of showing our respect for St Francis.’

The tapestries were hung around the walls in chronological order, starting near the alter at the right and continuing in a clockwise fashion. This is in harmony with the arrangement of frescoes depicting St Francis in the church at Assisi. Sr Margaret Manion, Emeritus Professor at the University of Melbourne’s School of Historical Studies, organised the exhibition in association with scolar Margaret Pont. Margaret Pont is the author of the 2004 book, Arthur Boyd and Saint Francis, that explored the artists’s relationship with the saint. Boyd had visited the towns of Gubbio and Assisi in 1964.

The soft light and cool atmosphere of the chapel brought the tapestries to life. Sr Manion commented on the theme of each. The jumble of clothing in ‘St Francis dreams about clothes and armour’ drew her comment: ‘In this tapestry, St Francis is dreaming about the fine clothes he had from his father’s cloth business. The next tapestry is about St Francis turning away. He’s still wearing his fine clothes, but is leaving the lovers behind. The lovers in this image are beautiful.’

Sr Manion explored the gentleness of the fourth tapestry, where St Francis kisses a leper’s hand: ‘You can see the leper’s body is small, and his feet are deformed. Although St Francis had a lifelong fear of lepers, he wanted to confront this fear. You can see this in the way the figures are portrayed—Francis is bigger, and has long wavy hair, while the leper’s hair is short and scrawny.’

The colours of the tapestries and the atmosphere of the chapel made the exhibition the ideal place to reflect on the life and work of St Francis.

‘St Francis when young turning aside’, 1972, tapestry, wool and cotton, 261 x 341 cm,  National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. © Bundanon Trust.

 ‘St Francis when young dreaming of fine clothes and armour’, 1973, tapestry, wool and cotton, 340 x 363 cm, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. © Bundanon Trust.