Rory Breslin (b.1963)
Mask of the Nore
Bronze, 88.5cm high x 41.5 wide (35 x 16 ")
Artists Proof

 

The Mask of the Nore is a larger than life-size rendition of Edward Smyth's River-God...

Rory Breslin (b.1963)
Mask of the Nore
Bronze, 88.5cm high x 41.5 wide (35 x 16 ")
Artists Proof

 

The Mask of the Nore is a larger than life-size rendition of Edward Smyth's River-God keystone depiction on the Western front of Dublin's Customs House.

The mask bears a strong featured but reflective face surmounted by a seine net, a dragnet that was usually hung vertically in the water by the use of weights and buoyancy devices. Complete with ropes and floats, the head depicts salmon, trout and eels issuing from the net as an evocation of the abundance of such fish. The Nore was characterised by its net fisheries, particularly below its confluence with the Barrow. The river has a fairly steep gradient but the flow is checked by innumerable weirs, thus its slow flow is modelled in the beard reflecting the shallow glides that are the pre-dominant feature.

Vigorously modelled, the face reveals an interesting fusion of baroque energy and classical control. The only Custom House head with its eyes lowered, it indicates a powerful and unpredictable force of nature.

Designed by James Gandon, the Customs House was completed in 1791. Gandon engaged Smith to execute the various decorations in the frieze and in the interior of the building, and the fourteen heads symbolical of the principal Rivers of Ireland, on the keystones of the arches. Twelve small wax models of these Smyth exhibited in the Parliament House in 1802. They are described in the catalogue as "twelve models in wax emblematically representing the commercial rivers of Ireland, decorated with the produce of the country through which they flow, designed and executed in Portland stone at the new Custom House."

 

 

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