The Piper Windows
John Piper (1903-1992) was one of Britain's foremost artists, with many varied interests. A painter, printmaker, war artist, writer on English architecture and set designer, he can also lay claim to a career as the most brilliant designer of stained glass windows of the 20th century.
Piper studied at the Richmond School of Art, and then the Royal College of Art. It was not until 1954 that he undertook his first public stained glass project, the windows in the Chapel at Oundle School. The commission came through Piper's friendship with Sir John Betjeman, whom he met in 1936, and who had commissioned Piper to write the Shell Guide to Oxfordshire.
From the booklet written for the occasion of the windows' dedication:
"The first impact of these windows is tremendous. The tall figures
of Christ have majesty and poetry of the great verses of Isaiah and The Revelation.
The nine lights, though each is designed and contained within its own framework
of stone, have been conceived and treated as a whole. Shapes and colours on
left and right, echoing and complementing one another, lead into the central
window. The main lines of the figures on either side lean slightly inwards
and upwards to give a surging uplift to the supreme figures in the centre."
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 To the left: the first window depicts The Way, The Truth, and The Life. Above: the second window shows Christ as The True Vine, The Living Bread, and The Water of Life. |
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 Above: The third window represents Christ as The Judge, The Teacher and The Shepherd. To the right: A detail from the third window. |
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