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John Piper and Stained Glass
by Rev’d Ian Browne
(17 Aug 2003) |
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In 1955 S. John Woods prophesied over the first designs for stained glass made by John Piper for Oundle School Chapel.
“They are extremely vital works; there is nothing quite like them in the contemporary visual arts...and after they are installed in 1956, they are likely to play a part...in a far reaching revival.”
Indeed they did. Piper’s designs were interpreted in glass by Patrick Reyntiens and when the windows were unveiled there was a stunned silence in the Chapel which lasted several minutes. Nothing like them had been seen before.
Piper’s interest in glass began in his teens when he copied panels in water colour. Many have seen the influence of stained glass in paintings and prints. Often stained glass has been a craft rather than an art and it has been made by designer craftsmen. On occasion artists and craftsman interpreters have worked together - Burne-Jones and William Morris produced windows which stand out from the mass production of Victorian glaziers. After the Arts and Crafts Movement very little glass of note had been produced in England before 1956. In France after World War II painters had been commissioned to design windows but in England this did not happen, for reasons of “timidity and ignorance” as Reyntiens comments, the clergy and the contemporary artist inhabiting “two worlds never caring to meet”.
It was fortunate that John Piper met Patrick Reyntiens – their work over the next thirty years transformed stained glass in England. All too often people speak of “Piper Windows” yet Piper’s designs needed some one who could realise his vision. Piper the artist trusted Reyntiens the craftsman to the mutual advantage of both, as Reyntiens comments “No painter keeps to the possibilities of stained glass better than John Piper, yet at the same time no painter stretches his executive interpreter more cruelly.”
None of this is seen in the finished windows of course. We see a liberation of design, a visual imagination and colour which lifts the soul. As a child I can remember seeing the great baptistry window of Coventry Cathedral, the first impression left a permanent imprint. Like many other people, I go out of my way to see a window designed by John Piper – I am one of the modern pilgrims that John Betjeman hoped would flock see the work of his great friend.
When Piper was approached with the Oundle commission he responded, “It is an exciting possibility.”. Every day I am lucky enough to see his vision.
Rev’d Ian Browne
Senior Chaplain
Oundle School |
There are 2 articles on John Piper:
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