The Healing of Justinian

The white stoneware clay vase is hand-carved by Leah using a triangular geometric pattern repeated over the entire vessel. The origin of these carvings comes from the artisan’s love of Renaissance paintings. Despite being clean-cut and contemporary in its form, the pattern on the vase stretches way into the past.

Courtesy of Cavaliero Finn Gallery

● Type: Vase
● Dimensions: 44 H x 20 Ø cm
● Material: Stoneware
● Date: 2019

Inspired by Fra Angelico's The Healing of Justinian by Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian, Leah replicated the hidden geometry of the painting in the design of her sculptural vessel, charting the relationship between mathematics and art. To achieve this, the artisan uses a pattern-mapping technique whereby the structure of the painting is revealed by pinning each angle onto the pot's surface. This is a technique that the artisan developed after learning about the maths and planning some of the great masters used when considering their composition. In doing so, Leah unearths hidden geometric structures that reside beneath the surface of the painting. The artisan maps out these patterns and forms and translates these by attaching, with pins, paper images of the painting onto a hand-built, unfired clay vessel, using the clay as a canvas. Leah then carves out these precise yet abstract patterns, creating a unique, meticulously planned contemporary object very much influenced by the past.

The stoneware vase is inspired by the stained-glass windows in Fitzrovia Chapel in London, which derive from an early Renaissance painting by Fra Angelico called The Healing of Justinian by Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian featuring the two saints of healing.

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