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The Mystical West

Spiritual Heaven | In Focus: Thomas Jones

In Focus: Thomas Jones

Thomas Jones' The Bard 1774 illustrates a once popular poem by Thomas Gray (1716-1771) which evokes what appears to be a myth, namely that Edward I set out to capture and kill all the bards - poets who kept Welsh history alive by reciting stories of the past - in Wales. Here we see the last one about to fling himself off the cliff to death into the river Conwy. Here is Gray's dramatic description:

He spoke, and headlong from the mountain's height
Deep in the roaring tide he plunged to endless night.

Thomas Jones The Bard 1774 Oil on canvas, 1155 x 1677 mm © National Museums and Galleries of Wales

Why paint an act of persecution that never actually happened? The idea behind the poem is that a nation's identity depends on its history, which storytelling and literature help keep alive. Even though the actual event probably never took place, the painting expresses a real fear that English domination will threaten Welsh culture, a fear that has persisted right up to the present day.

Another curious element in the picture is the standing stones. They look so like Stonehenge, which the artist visited in 1769, that it seems that he has uprooted the stone circle from Salisbury plain to re-site it in the Welsh mountains. The reason he did this is that the Welsh bards were believed to be successors to the Druids, who were thought to have erected the stone circle. So the artist is connecting the spirituality of a religion that flourished in the past with his country.