A Portrait of the Artist as a Memorialised Man: Sculpture at St Paul’s Cathedral c.1796–1916

Conference

mosaic of 24 square -formatted sculptural details in different media, including marble, brass and bronze.

Date: Monday 12 December 2022
Time: 14:00–16:30 GMT
Place: Wren Suite, St Paul’s Cathedral, EC4M 8AD and online

The third and final Pantheons conference took place in the Wren Suite of St Paul’s Cathedral on 12 December 2022. As well as focusing on monuments to artists at St Paul’s, it was also a celebration of the then forthcoming publication of Simon Carter’s Artists’ Corner of St Paul’s Cathedral in February 2023.

The conference took the form of a symposium, in which five scholars each gave a short presentation about a single monument to a famous artist or architect commemorated in the cathedral.

St Paul’s is, perhaps, best known as the Parish Church of the British Empire, but a wide variety of people are commemorated at the Cathedral, artists one of the most significant groups represented there. The subjects commemorated range from influential industrial architect John Rennie, through children’s book illustrator Randolph Caldecott, to Royal Academy painters J.M.W. Turner, Frederic Leighton, and John Singer Sargent, in forms ranging from ledgers and portrait statues through tomb effigies and Symbolist murals, to a crucifix.

Following the roundtable, for those attending the conference in person, there was an opportunity to visit the monuments under discussion and the remainder of Artists’ Corner in the Cathedral Crypt.

Speakers:

  • Simon Carter (St Paul’s Cathedral): St Paul’s Artists’ Corner
  • Jason Edwards (University of York): Frederic Leighton
  • M.G. Sullivan (St Paul’s Cathedral/University of York): John Rennie
  • Chloe Sharpe (ESNE, Madrid): John Singer Sargent
  • Marjorie Coughlan (University of York): Randolph Caldecott
  • Richard Johns (University of York): J.M.W. Turner