A Hand Full of Water in Antwerp, Belgium
Kissing and Nudity, The Human Passions and Drunkenness, The Triumph of Women and The Faun Bitten by a Nymph whom He Attacks: these are among the themes that brought the Belgian sculptor Joseph Marie Thomas Lambeaux (1852-1908) both wide acclaim and bitter defamation. A social realist, he tried to portray human emotions not as they theoretically were deemed to be but as forces in everyday, mundane life.
This brought upon him the villification of the Church. At the Exposition Universelle of Liège in 1905, he displayed his Bitten Faun (Le Faune mordu par une Nymphe qu'il agresse). It did not remain long on public view. The archbishop wielded his power and on May 8, 1905, the sculpture - covered with a veil for the prurient of mind - was removed from the exposition. Outraged, Lambeaux wrote of 'those who in the homeland of Rubens and Jordaens can not look at a nude without putting their malicious imagination to work'. 'I believe my work to be noble and of beauty', he insisted.
Lambeaux's social realism led him also to be highly interested in the best contributions to contemporary social and intellectual life (he made many busts of people who had been of service to humanity), but he was also intent on making history or legend - always with a public, moral message - available to the general population in public space.
This photo shows an example of his oeuvre in that regard. It pictures the legendary Roman soldier Silvius Brabo, who is said to have been the founder of Brabant, now a province of Belgium, in the first century CE. To that end he had to slay one Druon Antigon, a giant who exacted high tolls for using the river 'De Schelde' at Antwerp. He would cut off the hands of offending merchants and throw them into the river. On defeating the giant, Brabo exacted the same price from him. The statue shows the naked Roman hurling Druon's huge hand into the Scheldt. Thus Brabo's public spirit is held up as an example to Lambeaux's countrymen, he, Lambeaux, who himself had been born in the city.
Every time I visit Antwerp I go to look at this rather curious piece on the Great Marketplace. Of course Lambeaux meant it seriously, but it always causes me to smile - perhaps a bit smugly. The water emanating forth from the giant's hand, in fact, makes me giggle. Nonetheless, I admire Lambeaux for his principled stand against the forces of backwardness. What a juxtaposition...
Oh! yes, I amost forgot: Antwerp is said to have gotten its name from this story: The Casting (- werpen) of Hands ([H]and -).
A Hand Full of Water in Antwerp, Belgium
Kissing and Nudity, The Human Passions and Drunkenness, The Triumph of Women and The Faun Bitten by a Nymph whom He Attacks: these are among the themes that brought the Belgian sculptor Joseph Marie Thomas Lambeaux (1852-1908) both wide acclaim and bitter defamation. A social realist, he tried to portray human emotions not as they theoretically were deemed to be but as forces in everyday, mundane life.
This brought upon him the villification of the Church. At the Exposition Universelle of Liège in 1905, he displayed his Bitten Faun (Le Faune mordu par une Nymphe qu'il agresse). It did not remain long on public view. The archbishop wielded his power and on May 8, 1905, the sculpture - covered with a veil for the prurient of mind - was removed from the exposition. Outraged, Lambeaux wrote of 'those who in the homeland of Rubens and Jordaens can not look at a nude without putting their malicious imagination to work'. 'I believe my work to be noble and of beauty', he insisted.
Lambeaux's social realism led him also to be highly interested in the best contributions to contemporary social and intellectual life (he made many busts of people who had been of service to humanity), but he was also intent on making history or legend - always with a public, moral message - available to the general population in public space.
This photo shows an example of his oeuvre in that regard. It pictures the legendary Roman soldier Silvius Brabo, who is said to have been the founder of Brabant, now a province of Belgium, in the first century CE. To that end he had to slay one Druon Antigon, a giant who exacted high tolls for using the river 'De Schelde' at Antwerp. He would cut off the hands of offending merchants and throw them into the river. On defeating the giant, Brabo exacted the same price from him. The statue shows the naked Roman hurling Druon's huge hand into the Scheldt. Thus Brabo's public spirit is held up as an example to Lambeaux's countrymen, he, Lambeaux, who himself had been born in the city.
Every time I visit Antwerp I go to look at this rather curious piece on the Great Marketplace. Of course Lambeaux meant it seriously, but it always causes me to smile - perhaps a bit smugly. The water emanating forth from the giant's hand, in fact, makes me giggle. Nonetheless, I admire Lambeaux for his principled stand against the forces of backwardness. What a juxtaposition...
Oh! yes, I amost forgot: Antwerp is said to have gotten its name from this story: The Casting (- werpen) of Hands ([H]and -).