John Piper and Patrick Reyntiens: Light of the World
Title: Light of the World
Location: Right Wall, Robinson College Chapel, Cambridge (C of E)
Artist: John Piper (1903–1992, British) and Patrick Reyntiens (1925–2021, British)
Date: 1978–80
Light of the World is vast stained glass window, fully architecturally integrated in the Chapel of Robinson College, Cambridge. The Chapel is one of only two college chapels in Cambridge which are inter-denominational and was designed by Gillespie, Kidd and Coia in 1977–80. The window, designed by John Piper and realised by Patrick Reyntiens, reflects that inclusivity as well as bringing a huge canvas of colour to the space.
John Piper attended the Royal College of Art where he became friends with Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. During this time he exhibited with the London Group and the Seven and Five Society. He and his second wife Myfanwy Piper founded the contemporary art magazine Axis. Besides his landscape paintings and drawings Piper completed numerous stained glass and tapestry commissions for churches and cathedrals, most notably Coventry, Chichester and Hereford Cathedrals. Retrospective exhibitions have been held at Tate Britain, the Dulwich Picture Gallery and the Imperial War Museum. Piper’s work is in the permanent collections of MOMA, New York, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and Tate.
Patrick Reyntiens graduated from Edinburgh School of Art and served an apprenticeship with the stained glass artist J E (Eddie) Nuttgens, a fellow Catholic and friend of John Betjeman, through whom he met John Piper. Together, Reyntiens and Piper were at the forefront of the postwar renaissance in stained glass, with windows not only for Coventry Cathedral but also, using the new technique of dalle de verre, for the lantern tower of Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. Reyntiens served on advisory panels for Westminster Cathedral and Brompton Oratory as well as Westminster Abbey, and wrote art criticism for the Tablet and the Catholic Herald. His work can be seen in the Victoria and Albert Museum, as well as numerous churches in the UK and abroad.
Further Information
Medium: Stained glass
Permanent display
See John Piper and Patrick Reyntiens’s Light of the World on the Ecclesiart map here.
Other artworks in churches by John Piper: The Road to Emmaus, St Paul’s Harlow; Baptistery window, Coventry Cathedral; High altar tapestry, Chichester Cathedral; Tree of Life tapestry, Hereford Cathedral
Other artworks in churches by Patrick Reyntiens: Baptistery window, Coventry Cathedral; lantern windows, Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral; windows at Church of the Good Shepherd, Woodthorpe, Nottinghamshire; Eton College Chapel; Southwall Minster.