Willem Ignatius Kerricx
His sculptural style is typical for the late Flemish Baroque while he shows a preference for Classicism in his architectural projects.
[9] Some art historical literature states that he studied painting with Godfried Maes or in the workshop of Godfried Maes, the prominent history painter and dean of the Guild, although he was never formally registered as a pupil of this master in the records of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke.
Already on 8 April 1700, at only 18 years of age, he was elected the 'factor' (chief playwright and stage director) of the local chamber of rhetoric de Olijftak (Olive Branch).
Under his motto "Konst wint jonst" (Art wins favour) he wrote a number of plays until the year 1705.
In 1713 he and Michiel van der Voort the Elder received the commission to make confessionals for the Saint Bernard's Abbey in Hemiksem.
[14] He worked also on the design and implementation of the restoration and stabilisation of the Saint Walburga Church in Antwerp (demolished during the French occupation).
[9] Willem Ignatius Kerricx operated a busy workshop in Antwerp as from 1704 onwards, he employed various apprentices who came to study painting as well as sculpture with him.
[6] In 1744 he was put in charge of the decoration project on the occasion of the Joyous Entry into Antwerp of the new governor of the Spanish Netherlands Prince Charles of Lorraine and the Archduchess.
Typical for the last phase of Baroque altar architecture in the Southern Netherlands is the use of life-size statues of figures in three-dimensional sculpture.
[16] The Onze-Lieve-Vrouwkerk in Kruibeke holds many of his wooden artworks: a communion rail (1712), choir-stalls (1714), the altar of St Blasius (1722) and four statues for the confessionals (1733).
They were the workshops of the families Quellinus, van den Eynde, Scheemaeckers, Willemsens and Verbrugghen with whom Kerricx' father had also formed an informal partnership.
[18] Kerricx was one of the artists who worked on the creation of a group of statues referred to as the Calvary on the outside of the St. Paul's Church in Antwerp.
Kerricx sculpted a King David with a lyre and a statue of Moses as well as a Christ in the tomb and a few Stations of the Cross.
There is a Saint Luke painting the Virgin with the Child Jesus in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp.
[4] There are also a Moses speaks to his people, Adoration of the lamb and two still life paintings of flowers in Tongerlo Abbey.
[21] His two most important architectural creations that have survived are the city hall of Diest and the abbot's residence in Tongerlo Abbey.
He further provided engineering advice and directed the stabilisation works for the St Walburga Church in Antwerp.
[9] He designed new foundations for the church, which was sinking, and a new wooden frame for Rubens' painting of the Raising of the Cross.
