by David Siddall

CLEATOR Moor’s controversial artist, Conrad Atkinson, is working on a project that features a painting that was thought to show the Pope blessing Protestant king, William of Orange.

The original painting, from the 17th century, was savaged by the anti-Catholic league with a can of red paint thrown over it and another opponent slashed the painting with a knife.

Conrad Atkinson has been invited back to Northern Ireland 32 years after his controversial exhibition about the troubles in 1975.

He has been invited back by the managing director, Mairtin O Muilleor, of The Andersonstown News group, based in Belfast.

Mr Atkinson is basing this commission, to be exhibited later in 2007 in Belfast, on the controversial Dutch 17th century painting by Van Meullen depicting the Pope blessing King William of Orange.

The painting, now in a basement in Stormont Castle, was hung in Stormont in 1936 and within a week it was slashed with a knife by a minister of religion. Atkinson is combining this image with a series of photographs of gunshot and blast wounds inflicted during the last 30 years.

Mr Atkinson says: “I hope that the resulting work, which I have been painting in my studios in California and the United Kingdom, will be an optimistic yet serious look at the difficult healing process. This is a particularly important time for Northern Ireland and the recent revelations by the ombudsman have made the cultural and political climate particularly intense. I hope that artists interested in contemporary issues will add their voices and talents to the debate.”

The original painting lies in Stormont’s vaults awaiting the next chapter of its colourful history to unfold. Few works of art could have such a troubled past that so readily captures the North’s sectarian history.

On Stormont’s inventory list, the painting is listed as “Oil painting, said to show William III, the Duke of Schomberg and the Pope, by Pieter van der Meulen”.

Pieter van der Meulen, court painter for King William III, is the 17th-century Dutch artist who was widely believed to have been behind the epic painting but, as with other aspects of the picture, even that is unclear.

The controversial painting first came to fame in 1933 with the announcement by James Craig, the first prime minister of the Stormont government, that a grand picture of King Billy would soon be hanging on the walls at the newly opened Parliament Buildings.

The government had bought the painting for £209 and four shillings (20p) at a London auction house from the collection of the late Marquis Curzon.