Secrets of the "Ghent Altar" - a painting that is considered the most important in the history of painting

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The official name of the altar - "Adoration of the mystical lamb" - is an example of the highest skill of the Van Eyck brothers. Today it is kept in the Cathedral of Saint Bavo in Ghent and is the most stolen piece of art. What religious meaning is hidden on it and what is it that attracts spiteful critics and thieves?

The work of the Van Eyck brothers

The brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck created the "Ghent Altarpiece" in the years 1420-1432. This is evidenced by the inscription on the back of two donor panels and discovered only in 1823 ("The artist Hubert van Eyck began this work. Jan (his brother), the second in art, completed it at the request of Jose Veidt on May 6, 1432").

Since Jan van Eyck is considered the much better known of the two brothers, the reference to Jan as "the second in art" has caused a lot of controversy among some art historians, seeking to attribute the lion's share of Jan's work. It is likely that this inscription means that Hubert was responsible for the actual construction of the altar, which was later painted by Jan (the construction of the polyptych of the altar required building knowledge, and completely different skills were required to paint them). However, Hubert died in 1426 and the altar was completed in 1432, so Jan took over the rest of the work with the customer.

Altar composition

The "Ghent Altar" is a complex multi-piece construction (polyptych), consisting of a total of 24 panels, 8 of which are movable and lockable. There are a total of about 300 figures throughout the altar. It looks like a frozen religious performance, and when opened, it opens a spiritual guide to divine revelation.

Open Altar Panels

The central canvas is dedicated to the name of the altar and represents a scene of the worship of a lamb. The sacrifice of the lamb is a symbol of the killing of Christ for the sake of human salvation, also has Byzantine origin. There is a fountain in front of the altar - a symbol of Christianity. To the left of the fountain is a group of Old Testament righteous men, to the right are the apostles, behind them popes and bishops, monks and laity.

The upper panel represents Christ in glory (or God the Father), to the left of him is the Mother of God, to the right of Christ is John the Baptist. These are large and important figures of the altar, the combination of which resembles the Byzantine type of image (the intercession of the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist for the salvation of human souls). This is followed by images of angels playing music. The nude figures of Adam and Eve complete the series. Above Adam and Eve are scenes of Cain's murder of Abel and the sacrifice of Cain and Abel.

Closed view of the altar

The closed altar depicts the Annunciation - a scene during which the archangel Gabriel announces to Mary that she will be the mother of Christ. The figures of the angel and Mary are on the outer edges of the panels. The Holy Spirit (dove) hovers over Mary. The two adjacent scenes in the center are purely genre scenes from everyday life. Next to the Virgin Mary, in a recessed niche, is a silver tray, a small hanging jug, and a linen towel hanging from the counter. These objects correspond to the iconography of that period and denote the symbolism of the purity of the Virgin. The lower panels of the altar are represented by the extreme figures of donors (Jos Veidt and his wife), separated by statues of two saints - John the Baptist and John the Theologian. The upper row of paintings shows figures of Old Testament prophets and pagan prophetesses, Eritrean and Cumean sibyls (sibyls are female figures from ancient Greece and Rome who predicted the coming of Christ).

Lighting technology

The relatively large size of the panels allowed Jan van Eyck to demonstrate his talent as a master of light: directional light, saturation, the softest illumination scale in shade gradation, building space through light and shadow, symphonies of reflection and refraction, vivid surface textures - all these are reflections of real and divine light., perfect mixing of divine enlightenment with the created world - and all this is described in paints. Van Eyck creates a world within the painting as essential and real as the world outside the painting.

Oil technology - an innovation by Jan van Eyck

Jan van Eyck is known not only for the highest detailed craftsmanship, but also for his innovations in painting. Tempera paints are created on the basis of powder pigment admixtures. Tempera has one drawback: paints dry quickly and it becomes very difficult to make adjustments to the canvas and affects the quality. But the oil technique in this matter is more convenient: paints are mixed with oil, they can be diluted with water, solvent, change shades and achieve the best effect for the artist. Oil technology allows layering. It was Jan van Eyck who managed to create an incredible oil paint, which allowed the author to achieve unprecedented beauty and richness of details (faces are individualized down to the smallest details, decorations are painted so luxuriously that even their brilliance and radiance are conveyed to the viewer, the surrounding landscape is conveyed with high accuracy). After the work of Jan van Eyck, the oil technique spread and popularized throughout Europe.

Altar donors

The donors (customers) of the altar were the wealthy family of the merchant Jos Veidt and his wife Elizaveta Borlut. Despite the fact that Jan van Eyck was in the service of the Duke of Burgundy, this did not prevent him from taking private orders. One of them was an order for the Ghent Altarpiece from Jos Veidt and his wife. Like most patrons of the Renaissance, Jos Veidt was a wealthy merchant who sought to atone for the sin of excessive love for money, spending some of it on religious art. Veidt, an influential citizen of Ghent, commissioned the creation of the altarpiece of the Cathedral of Saint Bavo. Considering that his wife was also their wealthy aristocratic family, he had plenty of money and he obviously did not spare the expense. Distinctive donors (Jos and his wife) are shown left and below in prayer position, kneeling in traditional donor positions, facing each other and looking at the center panels. Although the immediacy of their presence will fade over time, their identity as patrons of the artwork will remain intact.

Disasters and abductions

For six centuries, the altar suffered a lot of disasters: it almost burned out in a fire, was censored, sold, forged, stored in inappropriate conditions. In addition, the Ghent Altarpiece is the most stolen work of art in the world. He was kidnapped 13 times! One way or another, the altar was always returned to its homeland - to the Cathedral of Saint Bovon in Ghent, where it is kept to this day. In 1566, the Calvinists tried to burn the altar as a Catholic icon, but the Catholic knights managed to save the masterpiece by dismantling and hiding all the panels. In 1781, Emperor Joseph II was outraged by the nude figures of Adam and Eve and ordered to take their images to the library of the cathedral. Then they were transferred to the Brussels Museum. In 1794, Napoleonic troops took 4 central fragments to Paris. After the fall of the Napoleonic regime, the new ruler Louis XVIII returned them to Ghent, and in 1816 another misfortune occurred: the vicar of the cathedral, taking advantage of the absence of the bishop, stole two panels of the altar and sold them to King Frederick William III of Prussia. It was only in 1923 that all parts of the altar were reunited, and in 1934 there was a kidnapping: unknown persons stole panels with the righteous judges and John the Baptist. The second fragment was returned to its homeland, and the first was never found (in 1945 it was replaced with a copy of the work of Jef van der Veken). The next abduction took place during the Second World War, when the "Ghent Altar" was stolen by order of Hermann Goering. In 1943, the van Eyck masterpiece was rescued by the Allies and the original altar frame by Hubert van Eyck was destroyed during the religious struggle against the Catholic Church and papal authority. The work of the Van Eyck brothers, with their virtuoso technique, the highest detailed craftsmanship, realism and spiritual inspiration, fully reflected in the "Ghent Altar" could radically change Western European painting and inspire the masters of art. Since 2012, an open restoration of the "Ghent Altar" has been taking place, which is scheduled to be completed in 2020.