Patrice Moor.

Koestle-Cate, Jonathan

Patrice Moor's Stations of the Cross, shown during Lent in the Dean's Chapel of Worcester Cathedral, departs from the tradition of the via crucis in two fundamental ways. Firstly, it depicts 12 rather than the usual 14 stations. This in itself is not so unusual. It was only in the early 18th Century that the number of stations was fixed at 14; prior to that date 12 were not uncommon and only eight have biblical foundations. The second point of departure is more radical. Instead of images of, or allusions to, the Passion these stations present us with twelve exquisitely painted depictions of a single human skull, convincingly rendered in muted tones and set against a dark, featureless background. The chapel's architectural division into columned bays allows each to comfortably accommodate one painting, hung within the space rather than affixed to the wall and seen in sequentially rotating views, as if we are encircling the skull as we move around the chapel. Rather than a meditation on Christ's suffering, then, this series appears to be closer in temperament to the tradition of vanitas painting, in which the skull frequently features as a form of memento mori that speaks not simply of death but the reflective capacity to ruminate upon our own mortality and all that it means.

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