Eaton Park is home to ‘Homage to Sir Thomas Browne’ the intriguing sculpture by the international French art duo Anne and Patrick Poiriet. Against a backdrop of trees and on a grass carpet, an eye and a brain preside over giant seeds and small seats inscribed with symbols and words.
People are free to climb or sit on the granite and marble forms of this outdoor ‘living room’. The artwork celebrates the remarkable Norwich physician, writer and polymath, Thomas Browne (1605-1682). Browne was a man of many and varied enthusiasms. ‘Homage’ has found its natural resting place in this park where so many Norwich people today enjoy pursuing their own interests and passions.
Location: between North Park Meadow and the children’s play area. ///rescue.memory.stage
“Let thy Studies be free as thy Thoughts and Contemplations: but fly not only upon the wings of Imagination; Joyn Sense unto Reason, and Experiment unto Speculation, and so give life unto Embryon truths, and Verities yet in their Chaos”.
Christian Morals, Sir Thomas Browne, 1716
Find out more about Sir Thomas Browne
Wikipedia For a simple, clear overview.
colonelunthanksnorwich.com Interesting article about Sir Thomas Browne on this blog about the history, decorative arts and buildings of Norwich.
www.sirthomasbrowne.org.uk Information-rich website set up and run by Marion Catlin.
aquariumofvulcan.blogspot.com Blog by Kevin Faulkner all about Sir Thomas Browne and his writings.
Sir Thomas Browne on Facebook A public group set up by Kevin Faulkner, featuring quotes from Browne and Browne-related news.
Some books about Sir Thomas Browne
The Adventures of Sir Thomas Browne in the 21st Century written by Hugh Aldersey-Williams and published by Granta Books in 2015 is sadly out of print. It presents a smart, companionable and wide-ranging exploration of Browne, his writing and ways to connect with him and them today. Second-hand copies can be found.
The Debt of our Reason by Hugh Aldersey-Williams was commissioned by St Peter Mancroft Church and can be bought from the church.
Other articles and publications are listed on the website www.sirthomasbrowne.org.uk and here.
Some books by Sir Thomas Browne
Religio Medici, (1643), Browne meditates on his Chistian faith and how it relates to him in relation to his life as a ‘modern’ physician and scientist.
Pseudodoxia Epidemica, (1646), Browne catalogues and debunks popular falsehoods of the day.
A Letter to a Friend (1656, published 1690), the death of a patient leads Browne to meditate on the human condition.
The Garden of Cyrus, (1658), an exploration of shape, pattern and symmetry in natural organisms.
Hydriotaphia, or Urne-Buriall, (1658), Browne writes about a collection of ancient funerary urns that had been discovered in Norfolk, and discusses death and related rituals.
Christian Morals, (1716), how to live a good life – aphorisms, homilies and sermons both Christian and from the ancient world.
“There is also a lesser sort of Eagle called an ospray which hovers about the fennes and broads and will dippe his claws and take up a fish oftimes for which his foote is made of an extraordinarie roughnesse for the better fastening and holding of it and the like they will do unto cootes”.
From Sir Thomas Browne’s notebooks
Funding and background
Homage to Sir Thomas Browne was commissioned and funded to mark the 400th anniversary of Browne’s birthday by Arts Council England East, Norwich City Council and Norfolk County Council through Commissions East. The 2024 relocation of the work to Eaton Park was funded by the UK Government as part of the Norwich Town Deal Hay Hill Public Realm Scheme and organised by Norwich City Council in partnership with Friends of Eaton Park.