Ivory, Apes and Peacocks

	Artist: John Duncan
	Title: Ivory, Apes and Peacocks
	Year: 1923
	Medium: tempera on panel
	Dimensions:
	Suggested topic: fantasy and imagination
	Source: RSA Diploma Collection
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© Estate of John Duncan 2005. All Rights Reserved, DACS
Description: John Duncan worked as an illustrator in London and studied art in Belgium and Germany before returning to Scotland. Eventually he settled in Edinburgh and became one of the key artists in the “Celtic Revival” movement. He wished to reinvent and represent Celtic imagery through borrowing subjects from myths and legends and decorative devices from early Celtic art.Ivory, Apes and Peacocks represents one of Duncan's non-Celtic subjects. Taken from the Bible (1 Kings, 10) it illustrates the visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon, bringing with her a bewildering variety of gifts. This extravagant painting speaks eloquently of the time in which it was painted (the 1920s). The pale, slender figures, distinctive hair styles and elegant gestures recall the fashions of these times rather than biblical times. We also see a curious divide between the different types of people in the painting. Sheba stood near modern Ethiopia, and we can assume that people from Sheba were African or Middle Eastern. But the Queen herself is depicted as a white woman, with a few African attendants. Does this say anything about what Duncan knew about Sheba? Or does it say more about Duncan's choice of contemporary figures to tell an ancient story?Duncan used tempera in this work, a method of painting that uses egg yolk to bind the dry, powdered pigments. Duncan has produced very flat pastel colours, with little texture or roughness. He has used very stylised drawing (with lots of decorative detail) and sinuous, elegant lines. Tonally the painting is very light and soft.The composition interestingly runs from right to left, rather than the way we read text, which is from left to right. Perhaps this encourages us to linger a bit longer as we look along the line of dozens of different people and wild animals. The Queen is centrally placed at the highest point of the painting, with her subjects beneath her and the animals lower down still. Do you think Duncan has deliberately created this ranking system? Why does the title relate to the animals when the main subject appears to be the Queen?