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Isabel Nolan
, Irish, b.1974
Title
Miracle of FireDate2021
MediumHand-tufted 100% New Zealand Wool, 15mm pile
Credit LinePurchased, 2022
Object numberNGI.2022.24
Description‘Miracle of Fire’ references the fifteenth-century painting ‘Saint Francis Before the Sultan’ by the Sienesse painter Sassetta (1395-1450). The painting depicts the moment before Saint Francis is about to step into a fire to demonstrate his fate and attempt to convert the Sultan to Christianity, in 1219 during the Fifth Crusade. This subject reflects Nolan’s interest in mysterious and unknowable phenomena; how they can inform worldviews; and have been pictorialized by artists. Nolan abandons the narrative of the original painting in her work and prioritises instead the motif of the fire, which appears as a supernatural event. Seemingly autonomous to its environment, the fire appears to exist in a timeless space, framed by an interior architecture that seems more decorative than functional. Nolan’s wall-hanging carpets are fabricated using traditional knotted-pile carpet making techniques and are the result of an intensive creative process involving various stages of art and design.ProvenanceThe artist and Kerlin Gallery, Dublin; Purchased, 2022Exhibition History‘Spaced Out’, Kerlin Gallery, Dublin, 2021-22