Isabel Nolan The wolf who made a city tremble c.1216 (After Sassetta), 2023

The wolf who made a city tremble c.1216 (After Sassetta) is a hand-tufted tapestry.

It depicts a rolling landscape with a small village and mountains in view. The sun is setting in the background, causing an explosion of color. In the foreground of the tapestry, one sees a wolf with its paw raised, and another is seen walking along the path to the village.

The title of the work refers to a painting by the Sienese early-Rennaissance painter Sasseta that documented the Catholic tale of the Wolf of Gubbio. Around 1220 CE, Saint Francis of Assisi was living in Gubbio, Umbria, when a ferocious wolf began attacking the local livestock. It soon moved on to eating humans, lurking at the gates of the city and pouncing on anyone foolish enough to step outside. No one seemed able to kill it, and the town was in a state of siege when Francis offered to go outside and negotiate with the wolf.

Upon seeing the saint, the wolf attacked him, but Francis made the sign of the cross and spoke sternly to it, and the wolf lay down at his feet. He rebuked the animal for attacking people, but promised that if it stopped terrorizing the city, it would be forgiven and cared for. The wolf placed its right paw in the saint's hand to seal the deal and followed him back to Gubbio.

Isabel Nolan has a wide-ranging practice that includes sculpture, painting, textiles, photography, writing, and works on paper. Her subject matter is equally broad, encompassing cosmological phenomena, religious relics, Greco-Roman sculpture, and literary/historical figures, as well as human and animal behavior.