Etching on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
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Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/john-bellany-732" aria-label="More by John Bellany" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">John Bellany</a>
Death Knell John Knox
Purchased 1983
adults
animals: mammals
beard
bed
birth to death
birth to death
body
cat
clergyman
death
death - skeletal figure
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
Evil - cat
fear
furnishings
good and evil
guilt
head / face
history
Holocaust
individuals: male
Knox, John
man
military: World War II
named individuals
natural phenomena
objects
people
portraits
religion and belief
religious
religious
religious
Scottish Reformation, late 16th c.
shadow
sin
society
symbols and personifications
universal concepts
universal religious imagery
woman
work and occupations
paper print etching
Death Knell for John Knox
image: 473 × 500 mm
Purchased 1983
<p><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/bellany-death-knell-for-john-knox-p07901" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>P07901</span></a> <b>Death Knell for John Knox</b> 1972
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<br/>Etching 18 5/8 × 19 3/4 (473 × 500) on paper watermarked ‘Arches France’ 37 3/8 × 29 1/2 (955 × 750) printed by Jack Shirreff, Westbury and published by the artist
<br/>Inscribed ‘John Bellany 72’ b.r. and ‘Death Knell for John Knox’ bottom centre and ‘3/23’
<br/>Purchased from Monika Kinley (Grant-in-Aid) 1983
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<br/>The following entry is based on information supplied by the artist in a letter dated 20 April 1986. It has been approved by the artist.
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<br/>The subject of ‘Death Knell for John Knox’, according to the artist, is ‘John Knox... expiring’. In this work, two themes which recur in Bellany's <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/i/iconography" title="Glossary definition for 'Iconography'"><span>iconography</span></a> are fused into a single image. Both derive from the nature of Bellany's upbringing in Port Seton, Scotland. Bellany has identified the major influence in his childhood:
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<p>John Knox dominated the thoughts of my formative years as a child brought up in a Calvinist dominated home and a Knox dominated fishing village in Scotland. Knox's ‘bible thumping’ and that of his followers runs through every strain of one's life in this situation. From education to physical and emotional outlets - SIN IS ALWAYS IN THE AIR with Knox looking over your shoulder.</p>
<p>
<br/>During his early life in Port Seton, Bellany also gained a heightened awareness of human vulnerability and mortality. This was the result of first hand acquaintance with fishermen who earned their daily living by embarking on dangerous voyages and, consequently, from the recurrent tragedy of losses in the village community.
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<br/>‘Death Knell for John Knox’ was directly inspired by Bellany's revelatory discovery in a biography of Knox that ‘he was not as white as the driven snow’. He has explained that
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<p>Knox's death was melodramatic to the point that Strindberg or Ibsen looked like Walt Disney in comparison. Knox's passion for his sixteen year old step daughter was at its highest peak, his wife, her mother turned a blind eye to the iniquities. Then Knox had a nightmare that he was in Hell and woke from his vision a distraught and terrorised man and his death scene was hardly filled with singing of angelic choirs, but remorse and soul searching and extreme anguish of spirit and soul until the life left him.</p>
<p>
<br/>In this work, Bellany depicts not simply the moment of Knox's death but also its nature and, in particular, ‘the terror in Knox's tortured mind’. His stated aim is to communicate Knox's ‘frenetic fear of fire and brimstone in everlasting damnation’. He achieves this through the cumulative effect of the image's constituent elements. Knox is seen in the foreground being literally overwhelmed by his ‘various obsessions’ which tax him with the knowledge that ‘retribution will soon be at hand’. The black cat is ‘Mephistophelian’ and ‘symbolises evil and the inner conflict Knox was fighting against. Good and Evil dominated the man's existence.’ The female figure in the background is emaciated and resembles a Nazi concentration camp victim. Bellany visited Buchenwald in 1967 and its effect was traumatic. The presence of this image here links the scene with evil in modern times.
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<br/>The work evolved from ‘many many <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a> - <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/g/graphite" title="Glossary definition for 'Graphite'"><span>pencil</span></a> - <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/i/ink" title="Glossary definition for 'Ink'"><span>ink</span></a> and wash and <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolour</span></a> and several smaller <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/e/etching" title="Glossary definition for 'Etching'"><span>etchings</span></a>’ most of which are in the artist's private collection. These were begun in 1971 and the etching was completed in 1972. Bellany felt that etching was the appropriate <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/medium" title="Glossary definition for 'Medium'"><span>medium</span></a> for this image because
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<br/>The clarity of the line was perfect for the ‘carrion-pocked images’ smothered in the death ridden rich heavy black of the atmosphere of the death scene with heavy heavy <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/aquatint" title="Glossary definition for 'Aquatint'"><span>aquatint</span></a>. One feels one can almost touch the air which is soot-sodden and stagnant awaiting the last gasp. This against the pristine clarity and light besmirched figures in the drama leaves one with the feeling - ‘THERE IS ALWAYS HOPE’ however minimal.
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<br/>Bellany also executed two related oil <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a>: ‘Homage to John Knox’ 1972 (repr. <i>John Bellany Paintings 1972–1982</i>, exhibition catalogue, AC tour, February 1983–September 1984, no.1) and ‘John Knox on his Death Bed’ 1972, which was accidentally destroyed while being moved.
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<br/><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><i>The Tate Gallery 1982-84: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions</i>, London 1986
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-10-13T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
adults animals: mammals beard bed birth to death birth to death body cat clergyman death death - skeletal figure emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas Evil - cat fear furnishings good and evil guilt head / face history Holocaust individuals: male Knox, John man military: World War II named individuals natural phenomena objects people portraits religion and belief religious religious religious Scottish Reformation, late 16th c. shadow sin society symbols and personifications universal concepts universal religious imagery woman work and occupations