An Affront to Common Decency?

In 1930, the church council of the St. Agnes Church made a risky decision. Leo Brom (1896-1965) was commissioned to construct the main altar for a fixed price. In doing so, they he was allowed complete artistic freedom with regard to the design of the altar. Upon completion, however, there came immediate criticism. The copper plates on the altar bulged, the colours of the altar curtains were not right and the tabernacle door had no handles. The most curious point of contention concerned the depiction of St. Agnes. A relief was placed on top of the ciborium of the altar in which the contours of the saint's legs were visible through her clothing. The church council notified Brom that they found this depiction to be an affront to common decency. Despite these objections, the church council did not agree to the artist's proposal to make the desired adjustments for an additional 50 guilders. As a result, St. Agnes' legs are still visible to this day.

A New Style

The St. Agnes Church is among the first Catholic churches in the Netherlands that moved away from the popular neo-Gothic style. It was built at a time when customary ideas about church art were being questioned and new styles were being developed. Catholic architects and artists were reaching further back into church history. This way, a church art movement emerged that embraced both old Christian architecture and new art forms.

Although not all the additions to the interior were immediately met with approval, chaplain Adriaan Knots and churchwarden Jan Mammen praised the church's modern style in 1936. According to them, it combined the best from all previous generations. Therefore, they did not experience any contradictions with the traditional faith. On the contrary, according to them, the style of the church indicated a renewed sense of reverence in a time of rising atheism and individualism.