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Seek ye my Face
Phoebe Anna Traquair, born 1852 - died 1936 - Enlarge image
Seek ye my Face
- Object:
Triptych
- Place of origin:
Edinburgh, Scotland (made)
- Date:
1906 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Phoebe Anna Traquair, born 1852 - died 1936 (designer and maker)
Traquair, Ramsay (stand, probably, designer)
Talbot, J. M. (stand, probably, maker) - Materials and Techniques:
Copper, set with painted enamels
- Credit Line:
Given by Mrs H.V. Bartholomew
- Museum number:
M.189-1976
- Gallery location:
British Galleries, room 125g, case 1
Object Type
A triptych is a picture or carving, chiefly used as an altarpiece and is composed of three panels arranged sidy by side and hinged so that the two outer panels fold over the central one.
Subjects Depicted
The triptych in each of its three panels represents an angel appearing before a sleeping figure on a mound overlooking the sea, a kneeling figure at an altar offering a heart, and a kneeling figure receiving a chalice at an altar. The triptych clearly echoes devotional enamelled triptychs of the Middle Ages (of which the V&A has many examples), associating the sacraments which is the receiving the chalice with the notion of self-sacrifice by offering the heart.The image of the sleeping figure may indicate a further level of meaning, suggesting that artistic vision, symbolised here by dreaming through the representation of a visitation from an angel-muse, can also be a religious quest.
People
Phoebe Traquair distinguished between 'epic' (large-scale) work such as tapestries and wall painting and 'lyric' (small-scale) work. From 1901, when she began her apprenticeship in enamelling to Lady Gibson Carmichael at Castlecraig, enamelling replaced book illustration as her preferred small-scale medium. Her work was greatly indebted to Medieval and Renaissance precedents, both technically and iconographically. Her jewellery, triptychs, caskets and mounted cups and covers, for instance, all have historical precedents.
