Nicholas Mynheer and Roger Wagner: Enhancements to St Mary’s (aumbry, window, font cover)
Title: Enhancements to St Mary’s (aumbry, window, font cover)
Artist: Nicholas Mynheer (b. 1958, British) and Roger Wagner (b. 1957, British)
Location: St Mary’s Iffley, Oxford (C of E)
Date: 2012–14
These works were shortlisted for the ACE Award for Art in a Religious Context 2015.
Nicholas Mynheer (b. 1958) and Roger Wagner (b. 1957) were commissioned to contribute to the enhancements programme at St Mary’s, Iffley, a Romanesque parish church in east Oxford. For the reservation of the sacrament, Mynheer, a sculptor and glass artist, designed and made a door for the 13th century aumbry. Two otherworldly stone angels guard the simple wooden door, the gap between their overlapping wings allowing light to shine out from within to indicate the presence of the gifts. Wagner was invited to create a design for the north west window as a complement to John Piper’s Nativity window opposite. His window, realised by Patrick Costeloe of Tom Denny’s studio, depicts Christ on the cross here as a tree in blossom, the River of Life flowing downwards from its foot. Wagner and Mynheer then worked together to design a cover for the 12th century Tournai marble font. Made of wood and pewter, the cover has five leaf-shaped handholds representing the wounds of Christ through which one can see the central glass dove reflected in the water below. Around the edge are the words, ‘If anyone is in Christ there is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold the new is born.’
Since the ACE awards, Wagner has also designed an altar frontal and new vestments.
‘The Enhancements to St Mary’s Iffley by Nicholas Mynheer and Roger Wagner have the advantage of what was already a marvellous church to enhance with plenty of evidence of predecessors who loved and cared for the place, but my goodness this present generation have done well. […]
These Church artists are distinctive and their work greatly enhances a building that has been there for a thousand years.’
(Nicholas Holtam, chair of the judging panel for the ACE Award for Art in a Religious Context 2015.)
Nicholas Mynheer studied Graphic Design at the Hornsey College of Art in London, graduating in 1981. After spending several years working in advertising he turned to painting full time, then subsequently sculpture and glass design.
Roger Wagner read English at Lincoln College Oxford before studying under Peter Greenham at the Royal Academy School of Art. His paintings have been shown in many solo and group exhibitions and form part of the Natwest Collection, The Ashmolean Museum Oxford and The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. He has published several books of illustrated poems and translations. A permanent collection of his work in the Faith Museum at Auckland Castle is due to open in 2023.
Further Information
Medium: glass; wood and stone; pewter, wood and glass.
Permanent display
See Nicholas Mynheer and Roger Wagner’s window, aumbry and font cover on the Ecclesiart map here.
Commissioner: The Revd David Barton and the PCC of St Mary’s, Iffley
Other artworks in churches by Roger Wagner: Menorah, St Giles, Oxford; The Dayspring, St Matthew’s, Bayswater.
Other artworks in churches by Nicholas Mynheer: Resurrection Altar, Mirfield Priory; Salutation, Newcastle Cathedral; Guardian Angel, 2011, St Edward’s School Chapel; altar, 2012, St Mary’s Kiddington; Madonna & Child, Church of The Assumption of The Blessed Virgin Mary, Beckley, Oxford; Peter and Christ, Church of St Peter, Goetre, Pontypool, Wales; cross, St Bartholomew’s Church, East Ham, London; Christ Dies, St Gregory’s Church, Sudbury, Suffolk, 1999; Stations of the Cross, Church of The Good Shepherd, Nottingham; The Word, Birmingham Cathedral, 2000; Holy Trinity, Church of The Holy Trinity, Blythburgh, Suffolk; Holy Family, chasuble, Stations of the Cross, St. Matthew’s Church, Perry Beeches, Birmingham; Wilcote Chapel Polyptych, Northleigh Church; glass screen, St Nicholas’s Church, Islip, 2011; window for St Martin’s Church, Tuddenham St Martin, Ipswich, Suffolk; St Peter & St Paul Glass Screen, Great Missenden Church; St Barnabas Window, Church of St Barnabas, Horton-cum-Studley, Oxford; five windows, Methodist Church House, Marylebone Road, London
For further comment on Wagner’s stained glass see Visit Stained Glass, which is an online showcase for some of Britain’s finest stained glass windows.