Conclusion

The Conclusion reflects upon the paradoxical nature of Jones’s intricate and multifaceted reimagining of Rome. In his works, Rome is at once the ultimate symbol of destructive imperialism and decline and the rejuvenating cultural force which preserves the classical and Christian heritage so as to bequeath this to the West and, in particular, to Wales. The conclusion draws these ideas together though the analysis of two paintings—The Mother of the West (1942) and Y Cyfarchiad i Fair (1963)—and lays out the implications of this complex approach to the Roman past for our understanding of Jones’s work and thought. It makes the case for recognising Jones’s reception of Rome as the fascinating response of a creatively diverse and politically engaged artist to his own complicated sense of crisis in twentieth-century modernity.