Francis Hoyland (1930- )
Oil on canvas
90 x 120 cm
1961
Methodist Modern Art Collection
HOY/1963/1
Image Copyright © Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes. The Methodist Church Registered Charity no. 1132208
Biblical commentary
Luke 2:7–10 Matthew 2: 16 John 13:2b – 9, 12- 14 Matthew2: 1–2, 11
The central image is flanked by four smaller ones and one predella-like image across the bottom of the panel. Hoyland’s central scene shows Jesus in the manger, under a lantern with Mary propped up and Joseph asleep on the floor. The top left image shows the announcement to the shepherds; top right, the Magi’s journey (three unregal figures, back-packing, through dangerous-looking Lickey Woods in Birmingham,); bottom right, the Flight into Egypt with Mary carrying the child and Joseph pushing a pram through Richmond Park. The remaining images portray the Massacre of the Innocents. The bottom left shows it as a nuclear attack, with burning buildings and a dead baby. The wider ‘predella’ shows it in terms of the warfare in the Congo when Hoyland painted the polyptych.
Commentary based on A Guide to the Methodist Art Collection.