Talking Pictures Week 41: St. Agnes

St. Agnes Eve by Harry Clarke

Talking Pictures for Children

Talking Pictures is an online resource for children and their adults based on artwork from the Crawford Art Gallery Collection. We will share creative prompts for happy talk and play every Wednesday.

About this artwork

This illustration is by Harry Clarke. It is a preparatory sketch for a collection of stained glass windows telling the story of St. Agnes Eve, a poem by John Keats.

This sketch is done in watercolour and gouache. Look at the vibrant washes of blue - how delicate and dramatic they can be depending on the amount of water used. Look at the dazzling whites, illuminating the buttons and threads of the fabrics.

The Eve of St. Agnes

This poem takes place on the 20th January, the eve of St. Agnes. St. Agnes is the patron saint of girls and is often depicted with a lamb. Can you guess why? The name ‘Agnes’ comes from the Latin word agnus, which means lamb.

Traditionally on the Eve of St Agnes, you would perform certain rituals before bedtime if you want to dream of your future love. In the past these rituals included transferring pins one by one from a pincushion to a sleeve whilst reciting the Lord’s Prayer, walking backwards upstairs to bed or fasting all day. Another tradition was to eat a portion of dumb cake (a salty treat prepared with friends in total silence) before retiring to bed, hoping to dream of a future love.

In Scotland, girls would meet in a field of crops at midnight, throw grain on to the soil and pray:

‘Agnes sweet and Agnes fair,
Hither, hither, now repair;
Bonny Agnes, let me see
The lad who is to marry me.’

The Feast of St. Brigid

St. Brigid is the patron saint of babies, midwives, travellers, poultry farmers, dairy farmers, printing presses, scholars, sailors and poets (to name but a few)

St. Brigid’s Cross

Just like the rituals for St. Agnes Eve above, there are rituals for the feast of St. Brigid. The most well-known is making a St. Brigid’s Cross on February 1st, St. Brigid’s Day and the first day of spring. These crosses are hung by a door in the house to protect from fire and evil. Every year on St Brigid’s Day the household make a new cross and the old one is burned.