Explore the Hidden figures and interpretations of this artwork.
As reproductions became popular, so did the notion that the composition contained a hidden figure. Discussions of the painting's intended meaning often used this notion to support their interpretations.
Aside from pious interpretations, there was much speculation that the painting had a more disapproving meaning. Some suggested that the painting was a comment on the sin of vanity. The chapel clock suggests that Siân Owen is arriving belatedly at a few minutes before ten (during the traditional Welsh silence before the morning service), possibly to ensure that her presence is noted, and appears to be wearing comparatively ostentatious clothing. The interpretation was often synonymous with a popular belief that Vosper had hidden an image of the devil in the folds of Siân Owen's shawl. The postulated image can be seen in the section of shawl around her left arm. The paisley pattern forms a horn, the folds his eye and nose and the shawl's trim his beard.
When questioned on this, Vosper always denied any such detail had been intentionally painted into the shawl. The enigmatic painter did confirm, however, an intended ghostly face painted into the verdant window scene. The partial knowledge of a hidden face somewhere within the painting is a likely starting point for the popular theory of a devil within the shawl.The painting's varying interpretations (especially as an admonishing lesson on pride) are now considered a valuable example of how the Welsh viewed themselves, and their rural nonconformist past, in the twentieth century. The devil in the shawl is now most commonly considered an example of pareidolia.
the devil nonconformist pareidolia partial knowledge devil left