Dimensions: support: 629 x 753 mm frame: 820 x 938 x 90 mm
Copyright: © The Piper Estate | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: Here we have John Piper’s "Yarnton Monument," a painting in the Tate collection. It feels so theatrical, like a stage set! What's your take on it? Curator: Well, Piper was deeply interested in the public role of art. Considering his work during the war, how might the monument, often a symbol of power and remembrance, be viewed in a society grappling with loss and the changing face of Britain? Editor: So, the stage-like quality might reflect how monuments shape public memory? Curator: Precisely. And the fractured style? It could be seen as mirroring the disrupted social fabric of the time. Editor: I hadn't thought of it that way. Now I see the monument not just as a depiction, but as a reflection of its cultural moment.
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Jacobean and Georgian church monuments are a frequent subject in Piper’s sketches and paintings, and this work is an excellent example of his use of colour and light to create a ‘romantic’ portrait of them, in which the figures almost come alive. The monument is in honour of Sir Thomas Spencer (died 1684), at Yarnton Church in Oxfordshire. Gallery label, May 2007
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