Biography

Flemish sculptor, architect and painter, son of Guillielmus Kerricx. He was apprenticed to his father and to the painter Godfried Maas (c. 1649–1700). In 1703–04 he became a master in the Antwerp Guild of St Luke, later serving as its dean (1718–19 and 1723–24).

His work is typical of late Baroque sculpture in Flanders, where elements of French classicism are blended with a decorative Rococo spirit. One of the best surviving groups of his work is in the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwkerk, Kruibeke, where he executed the Communion rail (1712), the choir-stalls (1714), the altar of St Blasius (1722) and four statues for the confessionals (1733), all in wood. He produced several important wood pulpits, including those at St Amandus, Geel (1715); St Ludgerus, Zele (1716); Onze-Lieve-Vrouw over de Dijle, Mechelen (1718); and St Lambertus, Heist-op-den-Berg (1737). Among his architectural works are the classical conventual buildings at Tongerloo Abbey (1725–6), where he also carved eight life-size statues for the confessionals, and the restoration of St Walburga, Antwerp, where he designed new foundations for the structure, which was sinking, as well as a new wooden frame (destroyed) for Rubens's Raising of the Cross. Among Kerricx's later works are two altars (1744) in the church of the Capuchins, Dendermonde, and ephemeral decorations for the triumphal entry of Charles of Lorraine into Antwerp in 1744. Theodor Verhaegen was among his pupils.