Art, Faith & Modernity
Mercers’ Hall, London, and touring to Liverpool Cathedral
Bombs can obliterate the present, but they can also resurrect the past. Among the revelations of post-war reconstruction in the City of London was a beautiful recumbent Statue of The Dead Christ, a miraculous survival of pre-Reformation sacred art found buried beneath the floor of the Mercers’ Chapel.
Since its star appearance in Tate Britain’s 2013 exhibition “Art under Attack”, The Dead Christ has been back behind the grille separating the rebuilt chapel from the Mercers’ Hall. But this month the statue is in congenial company as the hall hosts the exhibition “Art, Faith & Modernity” (viewable by appointment until 26 July, then at Liverpool Cathedral 6-30 August), designed by curators Liss Llewellyn to show that the best efforts of Protestant iconoclasts did not eradicate the religious impulse from the modern British soul.
