This year marks the 300th anniversary of the death of Sir Christopher Wren, and to mark the tricentenary, an exhibition has opened in the building most closely associated with him – St Paul’s Cathedral.
St Paul’s is famously the first cathedral to be built in the lifetime of its designer and also seems to be the first therefore to be associated with its architect in a way that is familiar today but was very unusual at the time.
Today’s buildings are often described by who designed them — Foster, Rogers, etc, and St Paul’s Cathedral therefore is a Wren.
Although the exhibition, which is in the crypt, unsurprisingly looks at the work that Wren did to design and redesign the post Great Fire cathedral, it also looks at less well known aspects of his life, as a scientist. This was the time before too much specialisation had occurred in the white-collar professions, and Sir Chris was as interested in the microscopic as he was in the massively huge churches he later built.
There’s a bust of a very young looking Sir Chris, from long before he gained the knighthood, sitting next to a portrait also said to be of the man, and apart from ageing, he seemed to be a totally different person in the painting. Or maybe the bust is optimistic.
The bulk of the rest of the exhibition looks at some of his designs and later works, but possibly the most interesting thing to see is elsewhere — at this grave.
The simple marble slab contains the epitaph “Reader, if you seek his memorial – look around you.”
But rather than looking around, look to one side, where a glass has appeared – which contains a death mask of the man himself as he looked at the time of his death 300 years ago, and a chunk of his coffin that was accidentally broken off at a later date.
They’re slightly macabre objects, but from a time when people were more exposed to death than we are these days and mementoes such as these would have been not overly unusual.
It’s less usual to see them today though, so while the exhibition tells a story, it’s the glass case next to his tomb that really shows the man himself.
The exhibition, Sir Christopher Wren: The Quest for Knowledge is open until later this year.
It’s included in the standard entry charge for St Paul’s Cathedral.
Annual passes for unlimited visits to the cathedral cost £20.50 for adults and £9 for children.
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