The mockers

'The mockers' is one of a series of about fifteen paintings executed in Melbourne between 1945 and 1948 after his discharge from the army, in which Boyd tackled overtly biblical subjects.

Responding to the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps, witnessed through newsreel footage, Boyd drew on his knowledge of the allegories of Breugel and Bosch in an attempt to find a personal answer to the moral chaos and social disorder he observed.

The virtuosity displayed in the handling of the crowded painting becomes even more apparent when it is realized Boyd was only twenty-five when he created this vision of a 'world upside down', set on the shores of Port Phillip Bay with the city of Melbourne distantly visible.

Franz Philipp, a close friend and early supporter of Boyd, wrote a penetrating analysis of this group of works, and in particular 'The mockers', in 1967:

"Boyd depicts mankind rather than man, mankind in the historical fullness of its fallen state (man as historico-political animal), man as crowd, as chorus of hatred without protagonists, and with the victims so far removed that destructive frenzy is without object and self-devouring."

Australian Art Department, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 2000