The Judge / The Teacher / The Good Shepherd
One of the three apse windows that constitute the first major stained glass commission of John Piper & Patrick Reyntiens, executed 1954-6 and portraying nine aspects of Christ's divinity.
The also constitute the first major flowering of a new, contemporary approach to stained glass design, radically different from anything produced in this country before, and therefore a milestone in the evolution of modern stained glass in Britain.
Right hand (south east) window representing Christ as the Judge, the Teacher & the Good Shepherd.
This was my second visit to Oundle School Chapel, an impressive building designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield in 1922-3 and standing completely detached in splendid isolation in the grounds of Oundle School. The chapel was built in a late Perpendicular Gothic style with a nave flanked by low aisles and a tall clerestorey that floods the interior with light..The east end is formed by a polygonal apse surrounded with a low ambulatory (forming a hidden corridor within).
The interior is vast and spacious as a grand school chapel should be, but fine though the architecture is it is the explosions of coloured light that punctuate the aisles and the deep, brooding tones of the glass in the apse that draw the eye here. Oundle's chapel is a treasure house of modern stained glass, from the three altar windows by John Piper & Patrick Reyntiens (their first ever commission dating from 1954-6, often considered the first windows in a modern style in Britain) to the extensive scheme of aisle windows recently commissioned from Mark Angus and installed in 2002-5.
Piper & Reyntiens' apse windows are quite unique, and more figurative than so much of their more familiar later work. The images represent nine aspects of Christ, each personifying a different aspect of his divinity. The colouring is rich and dense and the stylisation bold, many of the faces being more reminiscent of some powerful tribal mask than anything seen in a British church before. It took great vision and courage to commission these windows (Piper & Reyntiens had little experience at this stage and no previous collaboration to their names) and is perhaps symptomatic of postwar optimism and a more forward thinking approach than is often seen in today's commissions in glass. John Betjeman was so impressed on first seeing these works that he stated that the chapel would become a place of pilgrimage to art lovers, and so it should be to anyone with an interest in modern glass.
The aisle windows by Mark Angus are no less richly coloured, and some (at the west end) are equally figurative but most use a more abstract symbolic language. Much of the drawing has a rather charming, almost childlike naivety and the designs are in many cases kept refreshingly simple, allowing the various bold colours to dominate these smaller apertures.
Oundle School Chapel is a must for anyone with an interest in contemporary stained glass and the School is to be commended for its vision in making such a statement in its choice of artists. The chapel may be open to visitors much of the time but it might be advisable to check if making a special journey to see it.
The Judge / The Teacher / The Good Shepherd
One of the three apse windows that constitute the first major stained glass commission of John Piper & Patrick Reyntiens, executed 1954-6 and portraying nine aspects of Christ's divinity.
The also constitute the first major flowering of a new, contemporary approach to stained glass design, radically different from anything produced in this country before, and therefore a milestone in the evolution of modern stained glass in Britain.
Right hand (south east) window representing Christ as the Judge, the Teacher & the Good Shepherd.
This was my second visit to Oundle School Chapel, an impressive building designed by Sir Arthur Blomfield in 1922-3 and standing completely detached in splendid isolation in the grounds of Oundle School. The chapel was built in a late Perpendicular Gothic style with a nave flanked by low aisles and a tall clerestorey that floods the interior with light..The east end is formed by a polygonal apse surrounded with a low ambulatory (forming a hidden corridor within).
The interior is vast and spacious as a grand school chapel should be, but fine though the architecture is it is the explosions of coloured light that punctuate the aisles and the deep, brooding tones of the glass in the apse that draw the eye here. Oundle's chapel is a treasure house of modern stained glass, from the three altar windows by John Piper & Patrick Reyntiens (their first ever commission dating from 1954-6, often considered the first windows in a modern style in Britain) to the extensive scheme of aisle windows recently commissioned from Mark Angus and installed in 2002-5.
Piper & Reyntiens' apse windows are quite unique, and more figurative than so much of their more familiar later work. The images represent nine aspects of Christ, each personifying a different aspect of his divinity. The colouring is rich and dense and the stylisation bold, many of the faces being more reminiscent of some powerful tribal mask than anything seen in a British church before. It took great vision and courage to commission these windows (Piper & Reyntiens had little experience at this stage and no previous collaboration to their names) and is perhaps symptomatic of postwar optimism and a more forward thinking approach than is often seen in today's commissions in glass. John Betjeman was so impressed on first seeing these works that he stated that the chapel would become a place of pilgrimage to art lovers, and so it should be to anyone with an interest in modern glass.
The aisle windows by Mark Angus are no less richly coloured, and some (at the west end) are equally figurative but most use a more abstract symbolic language. Much of the drawing has a rather charming, almost childlike naivety and the designs are in many cases kept refreshingly simple, allowing the various bold colours to dominate these smaller apertures.
Oundle School Chapel is a must for anyone with an interest in contemporary stained glass and the School is to be commended for its vision in making such a statement in its choice of artists. The chapel may be open to visitors much of the time but it might be advisable to check if making a special journey to see it.