Christ on the Cross [Plaster]

Christ on the Cross [Plaster]

Figure sculpture, American--20th century

Christ on the Cross, 1959
Plaster Original

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Marshall M. Fredericks

Fredericks was commissioned to sculpt a 6 foot tall crucifix, but instead designed this twenty-eight foot, full-scale model, for a bronze to be placed at Indian River Catholic Shrine in Indian River, Michigan. The bronze Corpus is mounted on a fifty-five foot tall redwood cross. When it was erected in 1959, it was believed to be the largest crucifix in the world. Since then, a sixty-five foot crucifix has been positioned in the cemetery of St. Thomas Catholic Church hear Bardstown, Kentucky. [NOTE: the Corpus on this work is only 14 feet in height]

The Indian River figure required only three years to complete, but this plaster model was in restoration for seven years before being put on permanent display in the Main Exhibit Gallery. It had suffered from neglect during the two decades it was in storage at the foundry in Norway, Sweden after the bronze was cast. Note the absence of the crown of thorns and the wound in the figure's side. Fredericks chose not to depict the pain and suffering of Jesus. Instead, he shows the powerful body of Jesus at peace in the moment after death.

Fredericks, Marshall M., 1908-1998

1959

Use of this image requires permission from the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum

Sculpture

University Center (Mich.)

318" x 264"

Plaster full-scale

1991.061

Main Exhibit Gallery

1987 May, 22 Gift to Museum and SVSU Board of Control

The redwood cross was constructed from a single California redwood tree and erected August 5, 1954.

The Christ figure was cast in Oslo, Norway.

The weight of the bronze Christ is 7 tons.

Indian River Catholic Shrine is located at: 7078 M-68, Indian River, MI 49749

A chapel on the grounds was designed by Alden Dow.

In 1992 the bronze was conserved by Jensen Conservation Services.

MF, Sculptor copy:
The Indian River Shrine
At Indian River in northern Michigan, there is a beautiful but very small chapel, designed by the architect Alden Dow. In 1952 the priest at the chapel asked Fredericks to design an outdoor crucifix. The result was a huge figure, a crucifix on a redwood cross, fifty-five feet high, on which hangs a bronze Christ twenty-eight feet high and twenty feet across the arms. The emphasis upon blood and agony in many crucifixes was repugnant to the sculptor. The priest obtained permission from Rome to eliminate these and Fredericks created a crucified figure of only sadness and resignation. The enormous size and solemnity of the figure have created a focus for pilgrimage, a crucifix of tragic and heroic grandeur, deep in the evergreen forest.

Thematic tour copy:
Christian sculpture made for Indian River Catholic Shrine. IRCS planned to have an outside church and commissioned Fredericks to sculpt a crucifix about 6' in size. However, he sculpted a 28' Crucifix and they accepted it. He didn't take any money for the work they were only responsible for other costs such as casting, transportation, installation, etc. He claims divine intervention as he was sculpting. He said the clay seemed to just go right into place as he was working. It was cast in Norway. This is the original plaster model. It was installed in pieces and an extensive armature was built inside to support it. The gaping cracks in the plaster were filled in to look like one solid piece. It's firmly anchored to the wall with brackets. It took 7 years to restore for the museum and only 3 years to make for the Shrine. The bronze is reported to weigh 7 tons.

Normally there are certain attributes that a crucifix has. Ours is missing the Cross, due to space constrictions. The crown of thorns, and wound in his side are also missing because Fredericks wanted to display the moment Christ had passed away and had peace.

Ask students what they would normally find on a crucifix. (Note: Not all students are Christians, so do not get too detailed about religion.)

1000 Symbols:
Nails in hands and feet: He was nailed to a wooden cross. The nails mimic the wooden ones that were most likely used.
Wooden Cross (not on ours): It is said to be made of the tree of knowledge (or from a seeded tree of it) in the Garden of Eden, which links the story of Adam and Eve.
Crown of Thorns (not on ours): It's made of small thorn-like plants and put on his head as a form of harassment by Pilates soldiers. The said to him "Hail to the King of the Jews."
Wound and blood in his side (not on ours): Represents the stream of blood that is caught in a chalice, the Eucharistic vessel and baptism. It has redemption powers embodied in the sacrament of communion-receiving the "body and blood" of Christ. The wound relates to the rib in Adam's side in which woman was "born of a wound".
Loin Cloth or perizonium: A thin band of cloth around the waist and under the crotch. In Roman times he would have been naked. Artists in the middle ages began to depict him with a loin cloth for reasons of dignity.

In visual art, before the 11th century Christ is depicted alive and open eyed, a triumphant savior wearing a royal crown. After the 11th century he appears as an emaciated figure with a head fallen on one shoulder and later wearing a crown of thorns-this version prevailed in Western art thereafter.

Christ was accused of being King of the Jews, betrayed by one of his own disciples, arrested by the Sanhedrin, and turned over to the Roman authorities. He was harassed and mocked and a Roman soldier put a crown of thorns on his head and a purple cloak on him. Purple was a symbol of royalty because the dye was from a sea creature and was very hard to obtain, so only wealthy people could afford cloth that color. He was made to carry a wooden Latin Cross along the road to Calvary. He was nailed to a cross at Golgotha, the place of the skull. Soldiers pierced his side while he hung on the cross to make sure he was dead.

Molly Barth copy:
The next piece is titled "Christ on the Cross," at Cross in the Woods Catholic Shrine at Indian River, Michigan. It is one of the world's largest crucifixes. The cross that it's on, the vertical portion is from one California redwood tree, and that's 55 feet tall. Let me tell you a little history about it. The Archdiocese of Grand Rapids commissioned Mr. Fredericks to do this. Originally, they wanted a six-foot figure of Christ, there at Indian River, but Mr. Fredericks said, "No way, you need something monumental there at Indian River. So he did it this size. But he starts off small, he starts with a drawing, and then he makes a small maquette, which is usually one inch to the foot scale, and then that's enlarged, and enlarged again and again as necessary, until he ends up with a full-size monumental piece. The full-size is there overlooking Burt Lake in the woods. And you'll notice here on the plaster model, there isn't a crown of thorns, or a wound in the side. The Priest had to get permission from Rome to let Mr. Fredericks sculpt it without those. He really wanted this to be a very uplifting pilgrimage to the Crucifix. He didn't want to show the agony that Christ went through. He shows the sadness on his face, but he didn't want to show the agony. He wanted it to be very uplifting. As you go along through the Gallery, you'll notice he succeeds, even the War Memorials, instead of showing the agony and the blood, it shows that they're more for the living, again, more uplifting. He really is successful through his sculpture; and you'll see that as we go along through the Gallery. This plaster model, here in the Gallery, weighs just about two tons, and it is hollow. All these plaster models are hollow. This was the first piece to be brought in but a special skeleton or armature of aluminum had to be designed, and that was done in Cassopolis, Michigan at K&M; through the help of K&M and also Mr. Fredericks, they were able to design this, and also the support system built into the wall so that this could hang on there. Really the height of the Gallery was designed around this piece. The piece here is the full-size, and it's 28 feet high; and, of course, the Gallery height is 30 feet high, and the Gallery was essentially designed around the height of this sculpture, the plaster model, that is. The Christ figure was put up, piece by piece, the plaster model, that is, and the rest of the Gallery wasn't finished, the marble was not on the walls, the Travertine marble, the floor had not been finished. Mr. Fredericks wanted to bring this in because it is so large. You don't see any seams, but all the seams were filled-in more for aesthetic purposes, as you see in the others, the seams still are exposed, as I mentioned earlier, he wanted this to be a "teaching facility." The redwood cross was put up first, and then dedicated in 1954, and that weighed 14 tons and then in 1959, the actual bronze casting of Christ was put up and dedicated, and that weighed 4 tons, the bronze casting. The bronze casting of Christ was also cast in Norway and brought over by boat. It came to the Port of Detroit, and then from there it came up by semi truck all the way up Dixie Highway to Indian River. It did not have the arms; the arms of Christ were attached on the site there at Indian River.
Let me tell you a story of when they were hoisting the bronze up onto the cross. They had a 110 foot crane, but they didn't compensate enough for the weight of the bronze, so all of a sudden, the Christ figure and also the crane started to tip so they quickly pivoted the toes of the Christ figure into the ground to stabilize it and brought in a big, gravel truck to anchor the crane.
It took Mr. Fredericks four years start-to-finish to do the Christ figure and, as I mentioned, it was cast in Norway. When this Gallery actually became a reality that it was going to happen, Mr. Fredericks asked for the plaster model to be shipped over, because the plaster model had been left over there for over 23 years. Many of the pieces were missing, and many of the pieces had literally been left outside and partially covered. When it arrived, it was really in terrible condition, so the plaster model came over and with assistance, Mr. Fredericks repaired the plaster model and it took him seven years to the way you see it today while it took him four years from start-to-finish on the Christ figure from clay to actual bronze that is there at Indian River on the cross.

From 1995 Mary Iorio of Cranbrook, interview with Fredericks: "The building was a little simple church building. We went to see the priest because the priest had the idea that he wanted a figure of Christ out in front of the church by the road to identify the church so people would know the church was back in the woods. He wanted a life-size figure, just standing there. I said, 'if you want people coming here from all over the world, they won't come here for that; it needs to be something unique. We ought to build the largest cross in the world. I think the Pope will come here someday.' The priest said, 'It's impossible to raise the kind of money necessary.' We went to the Bishop in Grand Rapids. He said, 'Do it right, or don't do it at all. I'm sure you'll get the money if you have a good project. I will back it.' We had seven trees to get one that had a straight piece of redwood without any sap. We needed it 70 feet long. To get it from California to here, we had to put it on two, big flat railroad cars, fastened on one and able to swing on the other. Then we loaded it on a great, big truck. In the meantime, I started to develop the Christ figure. I didn't charge any of my time; they just paid for materials. It was at that time that I decided that Norway was the place to start a foundry. No place in the state would do it. I built a foundry there because at the same time I had the Spirit of Detroit to do, too. Labor was very cheap there. We could cast it at a fraction of the cost. We cast it at a very reasonable price and shipped it back on a trip right to Detroit and took it up on a truck."

In describing the figure Fredericks said: "He doesn't have a crown of thorns or wound in his side. I made a crown of thorns but I couldn't bear the thought of piercing his flesh. So we had to go to the Bishop again. He said we could not do that in public, change the Christ figure. It hadn't been done since 1800s. So he contacted the Vatican and, I guess, the Pope gave permission to do it. I don't think the Vatican would make a decision like that without checking with the Pope."

When asked about the process going much smoother than usual Fredericks said: "Yes, I probably shouldn't say it. Usually when you do a big thing like that, you add clay and then you smooth it out, put texture on it and then maybe you add more clay and then you take it off until you get it right. But with that big figure, I didn't seem to have so much work with that. It was so huge and I had to go over each little area ten times, it would have taken ten years. I worked all alone. The clay seemed to know where to go by itself. I kind of felt that maybe a higher being wanted it to be done properly."

Fredericks relayed an incident of a cleaning man at the studio in Norway while he was working on the corpus: "He'd come in everyday and we usually left at the same time and when he came in it was always dark and he would clean up the mess we had made during the day. This particular day I was upstairs finishing some paperwork of something. He came in; he didn't know I was up there. It was very touching. It was wonderful. He apparently looked up at this big, shining thing, the Christ figure, and it had real meaning for him. It showed how deep his soul was, that a person could so strongly believe in something. You can see how some people could sacrifice for their lives for something. He took his hat off, a little painter's hat, then he laid his broom down very carefully and he said his prayers. It was a very toughing thing. There have been a lot of good thing that have happened up there (at Cross in the Woods). People have said, 'oh, this person has been cured, this person was lost and they felt better;' people who felt comfort.

Fredericks relayed another story: "There was a Greek Orthodox Bishop. He had the hat and the great, big beard and gold cross. He told me that when he went up there (to Cross in the Woods) as a little boy, he was so inspired, he determined that he would be a priest. Now he's the archbishop of California."

From Joy Colby Interview-1981: The Christ figure is six times life size. The pieces cast in Norway included "the big Christ figure; the whole Cleveland War Memorial with the exception of the sphere which was done in New York; the Spirit of Detroit; the huge twenty-foot one for Dallas, Texas; Youth in the Hands of God; and, oh, the Gazelle; and a Mother and Child; quite a lot of big things."

Later in the same interview: And have you done other works with a religious theme? "Yes, I've done a number of religious things for different denominations. They have all been very meaningful to me and I've also done some altars with all the altarware. This big one up north is especially meaningful to me. You know it's the largest crucifix in the world." (this statement no longer holds true-2006) "It again started (when) the priest up there same to me and all they wanted was a life-size figure to put on the front lawn of the chapel. The whole thing (Cross in the Woods Catholic Shrine) is dedicated to an American Indian woman who they expect to be sanctified within some years. But it was such a beautiful, natural, wonderful place and such huge evergreen trees and so on, that it was obvious that if you put a little figure out in front, it would be just like any other little chapel anywhere in the work, it wouldn't mean anything, nobody would even stop there. The building was a very simple little cinder block building nicely designed, but sort of lost in the trees and what have you. So I said, 'If you're going to do one, why don't you do one that will really bring people here, bring people up north and make people think a little bit?' he priest was frightened, but he took me to see Bishop Babcock in Grand Rapids. Bishop Babcock was a real farsighted man and he listened and said, "That's what we'll do. Go right ahead. We'll get the money." I never got anything for my own work, but they got the money to execute it. I contributed my own time. But they built it. It is a big cross cut in California; we had to get permission from the Redwoods authority to cut the timber. They had to cut seven trees before thy got one big enough to get that straight piece fifty-five feet high by thirty-two inches square without sap running through it. Then we had to bring it across the country on two big flatcars fastened on one car so it could swing around the corners on the other car. That had to be brought all the way across the country up north. Up north we planed it all down and smoothed it. Then in the meantime while that was being done, I was working on the big Christ which I did in the studio in New York. I modeled every inch of it. Then I transported it to Norway in plaster in sections and cast it in bronze in Norway and brought it back in one big piece except for the arms which were separate. We couldn't get it on the ship with the arms on and also we couldn't take it up the roads in Michigan; it was too wide for the roads. So we took it up north and put the arms on up there. By the way, I have a really nice film of that, too, and some very interesting photographs showing that being put up. Putting it up was a very interesting experience, and frightening too. It almost fell over once. And there were some miraculous things about it that I still don't understand. For instance, on a figure that size which is so huge, you know, the hand are like that, and you try to do a big thing like that you ordinarily have to get back and forth, back and forth, and I had rather close quarters in the studio in New York and ordinarily to get the most…you put the clay on and you take it away and you add it and you take it away and you just go back and forth, back and forth and do things over and over. But it's a strange thing that just went along just miraculously. I had to take almost no clay away. It just seemed to grow in a very natural way. I never changed anything. There wasn't any of this, you; it'll look better this way or it'll look better that way, it just seemed to have a direction. And I don't know, I have a very strange superstitious feeling about it that somehow it was the right thing to do and I was doing it right. I really wanted it to be right. And therefore I didn't put the wounds in the side and didn't put on a crown of thorns, which you know in most churches you see that. That was a fight because the priest wanted those. But again, Bishop Babcock said, 'No. I agree with you, this should be a pleasant thing to look at, an encouraging thing, not a frightening thing or a worrisome thing.' And he said, 'We'll find out about this.' He had to get permission from the Vatican to leave those off. Isn't that interesting?" Yes fascinating. "It was really another little strange point that worked out. Many times people have said, 'I like it because He doesn't look like He's in misery.' Shall I tell you about the little man in my studio in New York? The Christ figure was there and every night a little Italian man would come in to sweep the floor and so on. He didn't speak English. He always had a little hat on. He'd come in just about the end of the day. Usually I'd be gone because it would be dark. One night I stayed a little late and it was getting quite dark. I was up on the balcony. I was washing up or something. I heard the front door open. He came in. He didn't know I was up there. He came in with his broom and his trash and got over to the Christ figure and he took his hat off and knelt down and said his prayers." What better response could you have had than that? "Well, I was so frightened and worried that he would know that I was there, so I hid in the washroom upstairs for fear that I would embarrass him. Well, after a while he went and finished. He didn't do a very good job anyway. He took off after he swept up. But what it did for me was made me realize that; here you are, you're representing the greatest human being that ever lived, at least in my opinion, and you have to represent it in the best way you can. You have to do your very best and you have to be as good as you can be. I just hope it was." You were very sure from the beginning that you wanted no crown of thorns or no wounds? "Yes, from the very first little sketch. That part of it I never thought entered into it. I think most people now accept it that it should be."