Cassandra Four

Cassandra Four reworks a motif that represents the princess/priestess/clairvoyant Cassandra. It suggests both her temple in Troy but also the threshold in Mycenae that lead to her fate. The painting has a playful and an eclectic mix of visual references borrowed and adapted from Bronze age and subsequent ancient imagery. The work is intentionally painterly and untidy suggesting old, unstable surfaces. The colours in this painting refer to both Mycenaean ceramics and the inviolable tapestries of the palace.

Note. Cassandra, a daughter of King Priam, was the prophetess who foretold the fall of Troy. She was given the gift of prophecy by Apollo but, as she rejected him, he cursed her so that nobody would believe her.

After the fall of Troy, she was taken as a concubine by Agamemnon and, with him, she was killed by his wife, Clytemnestra.