Landscape with the Elements
- Artist:
- Type: Textile
- Medium: Wool tapestry
- Production Date: 1973 - 1974
- Description: Cottrell Memorial Tapestry
Woven as a Memorial to Tom Cottrell, first Principal and Vice Chancellor of the University of Stirling (1965-73) at the Dovecot Studios in Edinburgh.
In 1973 the artist and Tom Cottrell discussed a possible tapestry commission for the University. After Tom Cottrell‘s untimely death, Craxton agreed to continue this work as a memorial. He executed the preliminary painting or ‘cartoon‘ in Edinburgh and this is now in the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. At the time it was made it was amongst the largest and most complex woven in Scotland. It was woven at six warps per inch and took six weavers eight months to weave. During this period John Craxton lived in Edinburgh and worked closely with Archie Brennan, director of the Dovecot. Because of the large scale of the setting for the tapestry, rich weave was employed. The main complexity was in the very full colour range employed. The workshop has a range of some 500 shades and this was fully stretched, using many permutations of mixtures.
Ian Collins, biographer and executor to John Craxton adds:
‘Although a tribute to Scottish craftsmanship, the Craxton tapestry is all about the seasonal and diurnal life of Greece, and especially of Crete where Craxton had lived from 1960 (and where he was able to return in 1976 and be based for the last four decades of his life). Mediterranean sun and moon dominate the changing scene. Earth is suggested by Cretan rocks, plants and tree. Air by a flying bird. Water by rain, waterfall and Aegean-like sea, and Fire by flames which have set the top of the tree alight and by smoke changing into clouds. Loving Greek mythology as much as archaeology, the artist has actually depicted a goat being metamorphosed into a tree (becoming the thing it eats) and, rising too close to the sun, like Icarus, has caught on fire. Although the tapestry is deeply personal, with an idiosyncratic iconography, it shows the enormous impact on the artist of Byzantine mosaics.‘
In Ian Craxton's new biography 'John Craxton: A life of gifts' (2021) he quotes the artist's own description of the tapestry design:
'The sun is symbolised as the origin of life, hence the yin yang fish, as well as its geometry and order. The Moon presides over that area which is elegiac in feeling which, tragically, became a Memorial to Tom Cottrell. The centre is a hidden 'pun' in which a rampant goat has metamorphosed itself into a tree: it has become what it eats and, rising too close to the sun, has caught on fire. As in nature, all is changing but the narrative should not be read but seen and felt: everyone is free to interpret what he sees in his own way. The moon and the sun represent day and night to dominate the whole. Incidentally, the moon is partially eclipsed by the Earth'.
According to Ian Collins, this work by John Craxton is rather more sombre in mood than his other work, which reflects a peiod in Craxton's life when he had been banished from Greece by the Colonels, and did not know if he would be able to return. He did in fact return in 1976. - Dimensions: Tapestry: 13' (H) x 17' 2" (W) / 396.2 cm (H) x 523.2 cm (W)
- Digital Copy:A digital copy exists.
- Location: Store
- Related Material: AC/AF/C/17
- Related Material: AC/OF/1976/5
- Accession Number: 1976.5
- Contact: University of Stirling Art Collection
