Details of Sculptor

Surname

Catterns

Alternative Surname

First Name

Joseph

Initial of Surname

C

Year of Birth/Baptism

Flourished

1878-84

Year of Death

Biographical Details

The general search by the Masons’ Company of 1678 listed ‘Joseph Katernes’ at the address of ‘Mr Tompson’ (John Thompson). Catterns was ‘not free, bound att Joyners Hall’ - that is, a member of the Joiners’ Company (Masons’ Co, Court Books 1677-94, fol 13r).
The only confirmed work by Catterns is the monument to Sir John Finch, an anatomist and diplomat, and Sir Thomas Baines, his friend and lifelong companion (1). It has high relief medallion portraits of the pair (based on paintings by Carlo Dolci, now in the Fitzwilliam), on separate pedestals but united by a single garland. Above and between the two is a flaming urn and hanging between their portraits is a knotted ribbon. The epitaph and the design, which recalls monuments associated with family and particularly marriage, encapsulate their exemplary Platonic friendship, the commingling of their lives and careers, and the unity in death of their souls and ashes. Gunnis described it as ‘lovely’, but Whinney felt that the design lacked unity and the putti showed the sculptor’s limitations. Wilson has recently focussed on the relationship between Finch and Baines, who were founder members of the Royal Society, and analysed the iconography of the monument within the context of Cambridge Platonism and the celebration of exemplary friendship.
Literary References: Gunnis 1968, 89; Pevsner, Northants, 1973, 414; Whinney 1988, 138, 446 n 7; Pevsner, Bucks, 1994, 613; Wilson 1995, 70-83