The sixteenth-century Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp, Belgium, home to Peter Paul Rubens’s famous Elevation of the Cross and Descent from the Cross, is now also home to a bronze sculpture by contemporary artist Jan Fabre, called The Man Who Bears the Cross. It is a self-portrait of the artist surveying a large cross that he balances in the palm of his hand.
Open ended rather than declamatory, The Man Who Bears the Cross was originally shown in wax in the 2014 exhibition “The Spiritual Skeptic” at Antwerp’s At The Gallery. There it was spotted by parish priest Bart Paepen, who had been “looking for a way of making a connection between the world of the church and that of contemporary art” for some time, and thought this piece would be a perfect fit for Our Lady. The last time the cathedral acquired a new piece of art was in 1924.
This six-minute film by Wannes Peremans shows the sculpture being installed and includes interviews with Paepen and local art historian Joanna De Vos. Continue reading “In Antwerp Cathedral’s latest art acquisition, a skeptic weighs the truth of Christianity”
Art & Theology 