Rory Breslin (b.1963)
Mask of the Foyle
Bronze, 88.5cm high x 41.5cm wide (35 x 16'')
Signed and Numbered 2/3

The Mask of the Foyle is a larger than life-size bronze interpretation of...

Rory Breslin (b.1963)
Mask of the Foyle
Bronze, 88.5cm high x 41.5cm wide (35 x 16'')
Signed and Numbered 2/3

The Mask of the Foyle is a larger than life-size bronze interpretation of Edward Smyth's River-God keystone, situated on the Western end of the South facade of Dublin's Custom House.

The visage of the Foyle is stubborn, ill-humoured and fierce. The prows of three ships link the castles, symbols of the Derry Walls built by The Honourable The Irish Society as defences for early 17th century settlers from England and Scotland. A broken cable of chain traverses the ornamentation while the rendition of the beard echoes the eddies, swirls and ripples of the fastest-flowing river in Europe for its size.

When Smyth was approached in 1789 by Irish architect Henry Aaron Baker, to add sculpted elements to the triumphal arch planned for the Derry Walls, he revisited the designs he had made for the Dublin Custom House finished a few years earlier, to illustrate the River Gods of the Foyle and Boyne. They closely match two of the sculpted heads around the Custom House, though in the case of the Foyle head, there is less detail and the countenance a little less fierce.

 

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