Pwy yw’r gwr

David Jones made Pwy yw’r gwr (Who is the man?) in 1956 to decorate the chapel wall of the convent of the Carmelite nuns of Presteigne in North Wales. 

Pwy yw’r gwr is the largest of David Jones’s inscriptions and it merges medieval Welsh poetry and the Latin Canon of the Catholic Mass to reflect the two most important things in Jones’s life, his Welsh heritage and Catholic faith. 

It consists of eight long lines divided horizontally by a white space, painted in black and olive-green opaque watercolour onto a background of medium white paper. 

It laments Christ’s death on the cross, but also alludes to the Christian Eucharist, in which Christ’s life and sacrifice are remembered through the consecration of bread and wine. 

The Welsh of the first part is from the poem Cywydd I Grist by the fourteenth-century poet Gruffudd Gryg. The poem opens with an address to Christ as the suffering Redeemer. 

The poet then confesses his own sinfulness and unworthiness. He describes Christ’s passion and wounds vividly, emphasising both the physical suffering and the spiritual magnitude of His sacrifice. 

As the poem unfolds, Gruffudd turns inward, expressing remorse and fear of damnation, contrasting worldly vanity and moral weakness with the eternal mercy offered through the cross. 

The Latin of the second part is from the Canon of the Catholic Mass, which dates back to the fourth century and has remained unchanged for over 1,500 years. It is the central and most sacred part of the Mass, in which the bread and wine are consecrated and become the Body and Blood of Christ.