Ghent Altarpiece

The Ghent Altarpiece is a winged altar in the St. Bavo Cathedral ( Sint Bavo ) in the Belgian city ​​of Ghent . It was created by Jan van Eyck and probably his older brother Hubert van Eyck and erected in 1432 or 1435 by Jan van Eyck in the cathedral - the then parish church of Sint-Jans ( St. Johannes ).

The collaboration of Hubert van Eyck, which has long been assumed to be quite certain, which corresponds to a local Ghent tradition and is also based on an inscription possibly added later on the lower frame strips on the outside of the altar, is rejected by some researchers. Due to more recent findings in the course of the renovation, which has been ongoing since 2012, some art scholars, in contrast, take the position that there is no reason to doubt the authenticity of the inscription on the first version of the frame and thus Hubert van Eyck's involvement.

The altar was donated by the Ghent merchant Joos (also Jodocus, Joost) Vijd and his wife Elisabeth (also Lysbetta, Isabella) Borluut.

The main theme of the reredos is the adoration of the Lamb from the Revelation of John with angels and saints .

Ghent Altarpiece open: feast day page

description

Dimensions

Dimensions when closed (without frame): 375 × 260 cm
Dimensions when open (without frame): 375 × 520 cm

Everyday side - closed state

The altar with closed wings before the renewed restoration

The inside of the altar was only shown at church services on high Christian festivals: Christmas, Easter and All Saints' Day . On the other days, the wings remained closed and only the everyday page (“weekday page”) could be viewed. This is constructed in three zones and looks like a cross-section through a house with different floors or floors.

Lower zone

The lower zone shows four niches with arched arcades. The two kneeling donors, Joos Vijd and his wife, Elisabeth Borluut, are depicted in the outer niches on the left and right.

In the middle two niches, facing the donors, are John the Baptist and John the Evangelist . They are executed in grisaille, which was later overpainted in color , as sculptures on polygonal plinths with name inscriptions. The Baptist can be recognized by his usual attributes , the undergarment made of fur and the Lamb of God, which he points to with the index finger of his right hand. The evangelist holds a chalice with several serpents in his hand, which alludes to a legend that says that John was served poisoned wine but that he blessed the chalice and then the poison left the chalice in the shape of a snake.

John the Baptist is the patron saint of Ghent and was the predecessor of Saint Bavo as the patron saint of the church. John the Evangelist is the author of the Gospel of John and the Revelation of John.

Middle zone

The middle zone above the lower floor shows an annunciation scene . The four panels present a continuous, low interior space from which a bi-directional window opens up a view of a Flemish city. The narrow niche in the wall, which - as the light reflections on the metal objects and the shadows of the tracery and the picture frame show - is illuminated less by a three-pass window than by a light source that cannot be precisely defined, contains a washing device with a mirror-like bowl, an artful, shiny water jug and a white towel. These objects can be interpreted as symbols of the virgin mother of God Mary .

On the left panel the angel of the Annunciation is shown, on the corresponding panel opposite the kneeling Mary, who has been surprised at her prayer desk and looks up. The dove of the Holy Spirit hovers over her head . The answer to the ave greeting of the angel - Ecce ancilla domini ( See [I am] the handmaid of the Lord , Lk 1.38  EU ) - is upside down, as if the dove or the prophet should emerge from the one above Bezel prevents them from understanding better. This can create a spatial and spiritual connection between the middle and upper zone.

Upper zone

The upper zone is formed by arched ends of the panels below. In the lunettes on the left and right, the prophets Zechariah and Micha and in between the Sibyl of Erythrai and the Sibyl of Cumae are shown. The former is dressed in an oriental-looking costume. Her turban-like bonnet resembles the bonnet of a woman on Robert Campin's marriage of Mary and the midwife Salome on Jacques Daret's birth of Jesus and brings this sibyl closer to the wise women who were revered into the late Middle Ages . The Cumean Sibyl wears a dress in the style of Isabella of Portugal , the third wife of Philip III of Burgundy . Isabella was painted on a portrait by Jan van Eyck in 1429, the original of which has been lost, but of which there is a replica.

Both prophets and both sibyls are provided with banners of their respective prophecies.

• Zechariah says:

E xulta satis filia syo [n] jubila… Ecce rex tuus ve (n) it

Translation:

Rejoice according to daughter Sion ... See your king is coming ( Zech 9.9  EU ).

• Micha says:

Ex te egredietur qui sit dominator in isr [ae] l ♦

Translation:

One will emerge from you who is to be ruler in Israel ( Micah 5,1  EU ).

• In the case of the Erythrean Sibyl it says:

N il mortale sona (n) s ♦ afflata es numine celso ♦

Translation:

Singing about nothing mortal, you are filled with divine will (according to Virgil, Aeneid VI, 50).

• The Cumaean Sibylla says:

R ex Al […] ♦ adve (n) iet ♦ p (er) sec (u) la futur (us) ♦ sci (licet) i (n) carn (em)

The rudimentary text does not allow any meaningful translation.

It appears like an abbreviation from Augustine's De civitate Dei XVIII, 23:

E caelo rex adveniet per saecla futurus / Scilicet ut carnem praesens, ut iudicet orbem.

Translation:

The eternal King will come from heaven to personally judge the flesh, to judge the world.

inscription

The inscription
(monochrome photograph from 1878/79)

During a cleaning of the picture in the 19th century, a Latin verse inscription in dactylic hexameters was discovered on the lower frame strips on the outside of the wing, which was partly added because it was illegible. On this inscription the assumption of joint authorship of the brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck is based.

Transcription:

P (ic) tor Hubertus eeyck ♦ maıor quo nemo repertus

Incepıt ♦ pondus ♦ q (ue) Johannes arte secundus

(Frater per) fecıt ♦ Judocı Vıȷd prece fecıt

V ers u se x ta M a ı ♦ v os c o ll o c at a c ta t u er ı

Translation:

The painter Hubert Eyck, the greatest who ever found himself, began this work, and his brother Johannes, second in art, completed the difficult task, following the request of Joos Vijd. With this poem he allows you to see what has been accomplished on May 6th.

The letters in the last line, also written in red in the original, form a chronogram - read as Roman numerals - and add up to the year 1432 (ı = 1, V / v / u = 5, x = 10, l = 50, c = 100, M = 1000). X-rays from 1950 and 1979 have suggested that the inscription was added afterwards. Investigations in the course of the renewed restoration of the altar, which has been ongoing since 2012, have shown that, contrary to previous assumptions, the inscription was written directly on the first version of the frame. May 6, 1432 mentioned in the inscription was the Ghent baptism date of Josses of Burgundy, the child of Duke Philip the Good and his wife Isabella of Portugal, who had been born shortly before. According to some researchers, the fact that Jan van Eyck was court painter and chamberlain and Joos Vijd were a close confidante of the Duke increases the probability that the Ghent Altarpiece was actually erected on that day.

Holiday side - open state

With the wings open, the altar shows its feast day side (also called "Sunday side"; see the illustration above). It is divided into two zones. The upper middle section dominating the picture shows an enthroned, monumental figure who can be interpreted as God the Father, Christ or the Triune God. It is framed by Mary and John the Baptist. On the side wings this group is accompanied by angels and by Adam and Eve . The lower part of the feast day page shows angels and groups of saints who are gathered around the lamb adoringly or pouring towards it on five panels that are connected by a uniform landscape in the middle and in the background.

Group of the three great figures

God the Father / the Triune God / Christ with Mary and John the Baptist

At first glance, the middle group could consist of three figures, who are called a Deësis in Byzantine art and who traditionally belong to the depiction of the Last Judgment : The Pantocrator (Christ as All Ruler) with the Saints Mary and John the Baptist. Maria and Johannes have the function of supplicants or mediators in the Deësis. However, Van Eyck deviates from this tradition in a few points. Mary sits on a throne as the Queen of Heaven , as it were, and wears a crown adorned with the Mary symbols of rose, lily of the valley, columbine and lily. As in an annunciation scene, she is absorbed in a book. On the nimbus, which frames her head in arches, it says:

+ ♦ HEC E (ST) SPECIOSOR SOLE ♦ + SVP [ER] O [MN] EM STELLARV [M] DISPOSIT [I] O [N] E [M] LVCI

[C] O [M] PA [RA] TA I [N] VE [N] IT [VR] P [RI] OR CA [N] DOR E [ST] E [N] IM LUCIS ETERN [A] E + SPEC [VL] VM S [I] N [E]

MAC [V] LA DEI M [AIESTATIS]

Translation:

It is more beautiful than the sun and surpasses any constellation. She is brighter than the light. It is the reflection of the eternal light, the unclouded mirror of God's power, the image of his perfection . ( Wisdom 7,26,29  EU )

John the Baptist is immediately recognizable by his hairy undergarment, but like John the Evangelist so often, he has a green cloak and as an attribute a Gospel book instead of his usual lamb. He too sits on a throne. It says on its halo

+ ♦ HIC E [ST] BAPTISTA IOH [ANN] ES ♦ MAIOR HO [M] I [N] E ♦ PAR ANG [E] LIS ♦ LEGIS

SV [M] MA ♦ EWA [N] GELII SA [N] C [T] IO ♦ AP [OSTO] LOR [UM] VOX ♦ SILE [N] CIV [M] P [RO] PHETAR [UM]

♦ LVCERNA MVN [DI] ♦ D [O] M [I] NI TESTIS

Translation:

This is John the Baptist, more than just a man, like angels, consummation of the law, guarantee of the gospel, voice of the apostles, silence of the prophets, light of the world, witness of the Lord . (after Petrus Chrysologus: Sermones )

The central figure wears a precious tiara adorned with precious stones . She is dressed all in red. The undergarment and cloak are adorned with precious gold borders embroidered with pearls on which one can read:

+ ΡΕΧ + ΡEΓ V + Δ N C + Δ N ANXIN +

Transcription:

REX REGUM [ET] DOMINUS DOMINANTIUM

Translation:

King of kings and Lord of lords

Accordingly, the Revelation of John says:

His eyes were like flames of fire, and he wore many tiaras on his head; and on it was a name that he alone knows. He was dressed in a robe soaked in blood; and his name is called "The Word of God". On his garment and on his hip he bears the name: "King of kings and Lord of lords". (Rev 19: 12-16 EU ).

Augustine wrote:

In these words neither the Father nor the Son nor the Holy Spirit is specifically named, but the holy and only ruler, the King of all kings and the Lord of all lords, the Trinity itself .

From this it could be concluded that the central figure should represent neither Christ nor God the Father, but the Triune God. But the inscription on the three nimbus-like arches above contradicts this:

HIC E [ST] DEVS POTE [N] TISSIM [US] PP [= PROPTER] DIVINA [M] MAIESTATE [M] + SV [MMUS] O [MN] I [V] M OPTI [MUS] PP [= PROPTER] DVLCEDII [NI] S BO [N] ITATE [M]

REMVNERATOR LIBERALISSIMVS PROPTER INMEN

SAM LARGITATEM

Translation:

This is God Almighty, mighty through his divine majesty, the most high, the best through his loving goodness, the most high reward through his limitless generosity.

The pearl embroidery on God's stole is called SABA ω T , probably in the Old Testament meaning of pantocrator:

The throne is covered with a veil of honor and behind it, in the pattern of which under a vine (cf. Joh 15,1 EU ) and the inscription IHESUS XPS (Jesus Christ) the pelican can be seen, which nourishes its young with its own blood - a Symbol for Christ who gave his blood for the salvation of the world. It is unclear whether the inscription and the Christ symbol relate to the figure in front of it and denotes this as the Christ of a Deësis.

At the foot of the central figure lies a precious crown, together with the scepter, a symbol of royal dignity and perhaps an allusion to the spiritual power that is superior to worldly power. On the heel behind the crown is written:

(left :) VITA ♦ SINE ♦ MORTE ♦ IN ♦ CAPITE ♦ (right :) LVVENT [VS] ♦ S [I] N [E] ♦ SENECTVTE ♦ IN ♦ FRONTE ♦

(left :) GAVDIV [M] S [I] N [E] MERORE ♦ A ♦ DEXTRIS ♦ (right :) SECVRITAS ♦ S [I] N [E] ♦ TI [MOR] E ♦ A ♦ SINIST [RI] S ♦

Translation:

Life without death radiates from his head. Shine without age on his face. Joy without clouding on his right hand. Carefree security on his left.

If the central figure is seen vertically in connection with the dove, the symbol of the Holy Spirit , and the lamb, the symbol of Christ, it represents God the Father and together with the dove and lamb results in an image of the Trinity . In the horizontal connection with Mary and John the Baptist on the other hand, following the inscriptions, she can also be interpreted as Christ or the Triune God.

Angels making music

Angels making music

In this angelic concert there is a group of wingless angels to the left and right of the three central figures. They are dressed in precious brocade robes and wear gold tiaras adorned with pearls, jewels or a cross.

The group of eight singing angels on the left gathers, as was customary in the 15th century, closely packed in front of a common music stand. However, not a single angel has fixed his gaze on the notes. The faces and the long, open, curly hair are similar, but have distinctly individual features.

Caption::

MELOS DEO ♦ LAVS P [ER] HEN [N] IS ♦ GRA [TIA] R [UM] A [CT] IO ♦

Translation:

Singing to God, everlasting praise, thanksgiving .

In the right group an angel is playing a small organ. A harper and a fidler as well as three other angels, whose instruments are not shown, listen.

Caption:

♦ LAVDA [N] T EV [M] IN CORDIS ET ORGANO PS LC

Translation:

They praise him with strings and organ Ps 150 (cf. Psalm 150 EU ).

The organ, a positive , is shown so authentically and in detail that the Oberlinger company was able to produce a functioning replica of it. The tiles of the floor bear embossed patterns of leaves and flowers as well as Christ monograms such as the IHS , the YECVC (also read as YEVE), the Alpha and Omega (Α and Ω) of Revelation and the Kabbalistic AΓΛΑ (also written AGLA), as well as the Lamb and the M as a symbol of the Virgin Mary.

Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve: excerpts juxtaposed

Adam and Eve, depicted naked and almost life-size, are reminiscent of the Fall and the expulsion from the Garden of Eden .

The captions read:

♦ ADAM NOS I [N] MORTE [M] P [RE] CIPITA [VI] T ♦

Translation:

Adam plunged us into death .

♦ EVA OCCIDENDO OBFUIT ♦

Translation:

Eve harmed us by the fall she committed .

Adam is shown walking. His right foot seems to protrude from the plane of the picture - in addition to the design of the floors on the inner panels of the upper zone of the altar, another example of perspective representation. Eve holds the fruit from the tree of knowledge in her hand , shown here as a citrus fruit. Both cover their pubes with fig leaves - so the fall of man has already happened. This representation is unusual for an altarpiece.

The half lunettes above the figurine niches show the consequences of the fall of man in view of the children of Adam and Eve, according to the Book of Genesis : Abel and Cain sacrifice their gifts to God, whereby only the lamb offering is pleasing to Abel; Cain's fratricide of Abel ensues.

In St. Bavo there are still panels from the 19th century, on which Adam and Eve are dressed.

Worship of the Lamb of God

In contrast to the upper part of the inside, the lower zone, consisting of five panels, appears stronger as a compositional unit. In terms of content, this relates to the Revelation of John ( Rev 7 : 9-10  EIN ), the last book of the New Testament .

“After that I saw: a great multitude from all nations and tribes, peoples and languages; no one could count them. They stood before the throne and the lamb in white robes and carried palm branches in their hands. They shouted in a loud voice: Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the Lamb. "

- Rev 7: 9-10

Martyrs , the clerics were Patriarchs

Adoration of the Lamb and the source of life

Holy virgins Shepherds of the Church

The righteous judges (copy) and the fighters of Christ

The Holy Hermits and the Holy Pilgrims

In the middle part, the original frames and thus their lettering have been lost. The original frames of the four side wings attached to the middle section, on the other hand, have been preserved along with their lettering. Therefore, only the representations on the side wings can be clearly named, and their translated captions could be used by art historians as image titles.

The adoration of the lamb is depicted on a landscape that stretches across all panels and has a paradise-like flower meadow in the middle, namely by a total of nine different groups: angels with incense barrels or instruments of suffering around the altar , on the two left side wings, on a rocky one Way, without the just judges (JVSTI JVDICES) and inside the fighters of Christ (CRISTI MILITES); mirror image of this on the two right wings outside the holy pilgrims led by a gigantic Christophorus (PERGRINI S [AN] C [T] I) and inside the holy hermits (HEREMITI S [AN] C [T] I) with Maria Magdalena and Maria Ägyptica in the background; in the foreground of the central panel on the left a mixed group of the so-called minor prophets of the Old Testament (to be recognized by the books), patriarchs, Jews and Gentiles , on the right the apostles and a group of shepherds of the Church dressed in red cope with chasubles. The circle is closed by the two seemingly endless processions of holy virgins and clergy that stream above the altar . The martyrs among them wear the martyr's palm as an attribute .

The center of the picture is the mystical lamb on the altar, from whose breast blood flows into a chalice . It is one of the oldest symbols for Christ. Since the restoration in Brussels after the Second World War apparently had to stop work because of the impatience of the Ghent people, this lamb has four ears, the delicate original, now exposed ears, as well as the large ears that were later painted over. On the antependium are quotations from the Gospel of John:

+ ECCE AGNVS DEI QUI TOLLIT PEC [CAT] A MVNDI +

Translation:

See the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (cf.Jn 1:29 EU )

IHES [US] VIA V [ER] ITA [S] VITA

Translation:

Jesus, the way, the truth, the life (Joh 14,6 EU )

From the fountain - octagonal like a medieval baptistery  - below the altar water pours into a gully decorated with precious stones. The following can be read on the edge of the fountain:

HIC EST FONS AQVAE VITAE PROCEDENS DE SEDE DEI + AGNI

Translation:

This is the river of living water that goes out from the throne of God and the Lamb (cf.Rev 27.1 EU )

The dove of the Holy Spirit hovers above the altar, pouring light with its golden rays over the central scene of the central panel.

landscape

While the heavenly sphere was usually symbolized by a gold background on medieval panel paintings, here it is represented as a landscape with a heavenly effect, which - seen from a bird's eye view - spreads out under a serene sky with feather-light clouds. Hills covered with meadows and groups of trees are lined up behind each other, behind which the church towers of Dutch cities rise, symbols for the heavenly Jerusalem (cf. Rev 21,10 EU ). According to Segal (1984), the Ghent Altarpiece shows 81 different herbs, shrubs, (mainly Mediterranean) trees, lichens, mosses and ferns. Many of the plants in the flora of the Ghent Altarpiece, some of which were already described by Johanna Schopenhauer in 1822 - including many medicinal plants - are related to the Christological symbolism and are depicted so faithfully that orange and pomegranate trees, date palms and cypresses, rose bushes and vines can easily be seen as well as lilies, irises, peonies, lilies of the valley, woodruff, daisies and the like. a. identify.

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Hubert and Jan van Eyck?

The question of the author or authors of the Ghent Altarpiece is one of the unsolved questions in art history. Still Dürer , who could see the altar on April 10, 1521 speaks only of Jan van Eyck, of John Taffel; that is a delicious, highly sensible match, and especially Eva, Maria and God the Father are almost [= very] good .

The intensive discussion about the respective shares of the brothers Hubert and Jan on the altar did not begin until the inscription on the outer frame was discovered in 1823. For art history, the question of a “hand divorce” arose immediately, which has not been satisfactory and conclusive as well has been answered very differently so far. There is no established doctrine that the majority of researchers would like to subscribe to. Rather, it looks like that with the increase in investigations and knowledge of the picture, the uncertainty about a possible delimitation of the two artists or about the attribution of the overall concept, individual panels or parts of the picture tends to increase rather than decrease.

Excerpt from the Just Judges (copy). Presumed portraits of the van Eyck brothers: Hubert in the front left and Jan in the back right.

Hubert van Eyck (left) and Jan van Eyck (right). Reversed prints after the Just Judges (1572).

In the dispute over the authorship of the van Eyck brothers, the inscription on the lower frame strips of the closed altar plays a special role. The latest investigations from 2012 onwards have shown that this inscription was applied to the first version of the frame. It remains controversial whether it is actually authentic and dates from 1432 or whether it is a later addition or a forgery. In 1559 an ode by the painter and poet Lucas de Heere, which was also published in print in 1565, was installed in the chapel in which the Ghent Altarpiece stood, praising Jan and Hubert van Eyck as masters of the altar and mentioning that both had been portrayed as Just Judges . Some art scholars think that was the time when the inscription was forged. Ghent local patriotism at the time is given as the reason for the forgery. They wanted to celebrate their own hometown with a “city praise”; because Jan van Eyck came from Bruges, so he wasn't from Ghent. That is why Hubert, who happened to be named Ghent painter, was made the brother of Jan van Eyck without further ado and placed in front of the external Jan in the inscription. The panegyric of the inscription, in which the artist's name and the work are mentioned in front of the donor's name, and the somewhat careless spelling made it impossible for the inscription to be authentic. The altar was by no means completed and erected in 1432. That only happened in 1435, when Joos Vijd founded a holy mass for his chapel and thus for the altar in front of Eyck's reredos.

Another point of contention is the identity of the older brother Hubert van Eyck. Some art scholars equate him with the Ghent master Hubert (also Hubrecht, Ubrecht and Luberecht or similar) van Eyck (also Heyke), who verifiably made drafts for an altar in 1424/25 on behalf of the Ghent lay judges who visited his studio. Joos Vijd was one of them. However, no work can be assigned to this master beyond doubt. It is also unclear whether he was actually a brother of the younger Jan van Eyck. It is certain that a Hubrecht van Eyck died on September 18th (1426?) In Ghent, found his grave in Sint-Jans and received a grave slab with a lost inscription, of which a copy has survived. An excerpt from it reads:

Hubrecht van Eyck was ick ghenant

Nu spyse the worms, voormaels known

In schilderye zeer hooghe gheeert:

Cort na what yet, in nieute.

Int iaer des Heeren des sijt ghewes

Duysent, four hounds, twintich en zes,

Inde maent September, achthien there was a lot,

Dat ick met pynen God gaf my goal.

However, Hubert van Eyck's knowledge is so sparse that his existence has even been questioned and he has been called a personnage de légende . Due to more recent findings in the course of the renovation, which has been ongoing since 2012, some art scholars, in contrast, take the position that there is no reason to doubt the authenticity of the inscription on the first version of the frame and thus Hubert van Eyck's involvement. Nonetheless, all art historical research and considerations result in an uncertain factual situation: Hubert van Eyck could have designed most of the things and painted a lot, he could only have provided a draft and Jan van Eyck could have painted everything, Jan van Eyck could have revised Hubert's panels or he could have designed and completed everything.

History of the Ghent Altarpiece

Joos Vijd, condition before the new restoration

Elisabeth Borluut, as it was before the restoration

The altar was commissioned by the wealthy Ghent patrician Joos Vijd and his wife Elisabeth Borluut. It was intended for the side chapel also donated by Vijd in Sint-Jans, today's St. Bavo. The contract was awarded around 1420 and probably completed in 1432. The altar is said to have been consecrated on May 6, 1432. In 1435 Vijd bequeathed a piece of land to the church so that masses for the donors could also be read on the altar in the future.

A checkered and adventurous history is associated with the altar. In the first half of the 16th century, it was subjected to a restoration for the first time, which allegedly destroyed the predella named by Marcus van Vaernewyck voet . In 1550 the painters Lancelot Blondeel and Jan van Scorel cleaned the altar. During the Dutch iconoclasm , it was hidden in the church tower and only returned to its place in the Vijd Chapel after the re-Catholicization of Flanders in 1569. In 1578 the Calvinists dismantled the altar again and set it up in the town hall. He returned to St. Bavo twenty years later. In 1662 the panels were inserted into a baroque altar structure.

In 1781 the tablets with Adam and Eve had to be removed, supposedly because Emperor Joseph II took offense at the bare forefathers. However, the style of the paintings no longer matched the early classicist taste. After the conquest of Flanders by French troops in the Revolutionary Wars , the middle parts of the altar were taken to Paris at Napoleon's behest and exhibited there in the Musée Napoléon, today's Louvre , while the wings could be hidden in good time. After the Battle of Waterloo , the main tablets were returned to the city of Ghent.

At that time, however, the side panels had been sold - legally according to the opinion of the time - to a dealer and resold by him to the English merchant Edward Solly. Solly sold the side panels to the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III in 1821 for 400,000 guilders . Meanwhile, the four central panels remained in St. Bavo. In 1822 they were evacuated during a fire in the roof structure and only barely saved from destruction. In the process, the lamb worship paint layer was damaged and this panel broke horizontally in two. In 1823 Gustav Christoph Waagen in Berlin had the largely overpainted inscription uncovered on the lower frame strips on the outside, of which only the name Hubertus could be read under the picture of the donor. In 1829, the panels that were sent to Berlin were divided into a front and a back so that both sides could be viewed better. These panels were initially placed in the Altes Museum by Karl Friedrich Schinkel , which opened in 1830 , as the main work of the Berlin gallery, right next to the main works of the Italian Renaissance collection. In 1904 they came again, highlighted in a separate cabinet, for presentation in the new Kaiser Friedrich Museum . In the newly planned Deutsches Museum in the north wing of today's Pergamon Museum , they were to have been given a central position since 1907.

But after the First World War , Germany was obliged in the Treaty of Versailles to use the panels together with the panels of the Löwener Altar by Dierick Bouts the Elder that were kept in Munich's Alte Pinakothek . Ä. to be delivered to Belgium, although they had been legally acquired in 1821 and the Hague War Convention of 1904 forbids compensation for war damage with cultural property. There were protests against the delivery of the tablets in Germany until the 1930s. In 1936, the Berlin museums set up a memorial cabinet in the Deutsches Museum in the Pergamon Museum .

In Belgium, the sawn-up panels were put back together, combined with the Adam and Eve wings, which had meanwhile come to the Brussels Museum, and set up again as a high altar in Ghent's St. Bavo Church. In 1934 the panels with the Just Judges and John the Baptist were stolen. The latter was returned. However, a ransom of one million Belgian francs was demanded for the far more valuable Just Judges , probably from Arseen Goedertier . Since the sum was not paid, there was no return. This picture is still lost. The panel on display today is a copy made by the painter and restorer Jozef van der Veken.

The Ghent Altarpiece during the salvage from the Altaussee salt mine , 1945

During the Second World War , the altar was brought to Pau Castle in the south of France , where it was discovered by the National Socialists. Under the guidance of Ernst Buchner they took him first to Neuschwanstein and in 1944 to the salt mine near Altaussee , from which he was salvaged by the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Section after the war .

After the war, the altar in Brussels underwent extensive restoration and as far as possible stripped of any layers of paint that were added later. It was then placed back at the place of its intended use, the Vijd Chapel. Since 1989, after extensive restoration, the work, which is by and large in very good condition, has stood in the daylight-free northern tower side chapel of St. Bavo, protected and air-conditioned in a hermetic armored glass showcase. However, the greenish tint of the thick armored glass affects the original color, especially when it is only illuminated by artificial light. In addition, it has made viewing the closed altar impossible, and the uniformity of its pictorial motifs - the Annunciation, the founder and both John - was torn apart.

The altar has been undergoing another restoration since September 2012. One third of the work in the Ghent Museum voor Schone Kunsten is processed in three phases . There you can observe the restoration work on the corresponding panels behind a glass wall and, when the work is idle, see the panels presented separately. The remaining two thirds of the original can be seen in St. Bavo's Cathedral as before, and the missing panels have been replaced by reproductions. The first phase dedicated to the boards on the weekday page ended in September 2016. The second phase, which has continued since then, concerns four of the five lower panels on the feast day side, including the central depiction of the Adoration of the Lamb and only the panel, which has already been restored, with the copy of the Just Judges . You can get an idea of ​​the effect of the altar in daylight at the original installation site in the Vijd side chapel, where a full-size color photocopy of the altar can be seen, so that all the panels on the altar can be viewed - even when closed.

After its renovation was completed in January 2020, the Adoration of the Lamb has returned to Ghent's Saint Bavo Cathedral as part of the Van Eyck Year.

Trivia

The search for the altar and the Bruges Madonna during the Second World War is a central theme of the feature film Monuments Men - Unusual Heroes (2014).

literature

• Nils Büttner : Johannes arte secundus? Or: who signed the Ghent Altarpiece? . In: Thomas Schilp (Ed.): Dortmund and Conrad von Soest in late medieval Europe. Bielefeld 2004, pp. 179-200. Full text in ART doc from Heidelberg University
• Lotte Brand Philip : The Ghent Altarpiece and the Art of Jan van Eyck . Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971
• Elisabeth Dhanens: Van Eyck. The Ghent Altarpiece . Lane Press, London 1973, ISBN 0-7139-0407-0 .
• Reinhard Liess : The Quatrain of the Ghent Altarpiece. A self-portrait by Jan van Eyck. In: Musis et Litteris. Festschrift for Bernhard Rupprecht on his 65th birthday. W. Fink, Munich 1993, pp. 35-67.
• Reinhard Liess: Stefan Lochner and Jan van Eyck. The influence of the Ghent Altarpiece on the altar of the Cologne city patron. In: Aachener Kunstblätter 1995/97. 1998, pp. 157-197.
• Esther Gallwitz: A wonderful garden. The plants of the Ghent Altarpiece . Insel-Verlag, Frankfurt / M. 1996, ISBN 3-458-33553-6 .
• Volker Herzner: Jan van Eyck and the Ghent Altarpiece . Edition Werner, Worms 1995, ISBN 3-88462-125-4 .
• Stephan Kemperdick, Johannes Rößler (ed.): The Ghent Altarpiece by the Van Eyck brothers. History and appreciation . Petersberg 2014. ISBN 978-3-7319-0089-4 .
• Stephan Kemperdick, Johannes Rößler, Joris Corin Heyder (eds.): The Ghent Altarpiece. Reproductions, interpretations, research controversies (The Ghent Altarpiece. Reproductions, Interpretations, Scholarly Debates) . Petersberg 2017. ISBN 978-3-7319-0456-4 .
• Caterina Limentani Virdis, Mari Pietrogiovanna: winged altars. Painted polyptychs from the Gothic and Renaissance periods ("I polittici"). Hirmer Verlag, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-7774-9520-4 .
• Otto Pächt : Van Eyck. The founders of old Dutch painting. Prestel, Munich 1989 (edited by Maria Schmidt-Dengler); 4th edition ibid 2007, ISBN 978-3-7913-2720-4 , passim.
• Erwin Panofsky : The old Dutch painting. Their origin and essence ("Early Netherlandish Painting"). DuMont, Cologne 2001, ISBN 3-7701-3857-0 (2 volumes).
• Peter Schmidt: The Ghent Altarpiece . 2nd edition. Urachhaus publishing house, Stuttgart 2007.
• Peter Schmidt: Het Lam Gods . Davidsfonds, Leuven 2005, ISBN 90-77942-03-3 .
• Norbert Schneider: Jan van Eyck, The Ghent Altarpiece. Proposals for Reforming the Church. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1986; New edition ibid 1997, ISBN 3-596-23933-8 .

Web links

Commons : Ghent Altarpiece  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Closer to Van Eyck: The Ghent Altarpiece. Koninklijk Instituut voor het Kunstpatrimonium(pictures of the restored everyday page). 
• Ferdinand Dupuis-Panther: Jan van Eyck and the mystery of the Lamb of God. In: black and white. May 9, 2019 . 
• Ghent Altarpiece, a heavenly artistic highlight: Old Dutch painting with world fame. In: Visit Gent. 
• Cornelius Stiegemann: Why Twitter makes fun of the Lamb of God. In: kathisch.de . February 14, 2020 . 

Individual evidence

1. ^ Nils Büttner: Johannes arte secundus? Or: who signed the Ghent Altarpiece? . In: Thomas Schilp (Ed.): Dortmund and Conrad von Soest in late medieval Europe . Bielefeld 2004, p. 184. PDF online . Retrieved November 11, 2017.
2. ^ Nils Büttner: Johannes arte secundus? Or: who signed the Ghent Altarpiece? . In: Thomas Schilp (Ed.): Dortmund and Conrad von Soest in late medieval Europe . Bielefeld 2004, p. 185. See also notes 44 and 45 there. PDF online . Retrieved November 11, 2017.
3. ↑ ^{a b c} Stephan Kemperdick: The history of the Ghent Altarpiece . In: Stephan Kemperdick and Johannes Rößler (eds.): The Ghent Altarpiece by the van Eyck brothers . Publication accompanying the exhibition The Ghent Altarpiece by the van Eyck brothers in Berlin. 1820-1920 . Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz 2014, p. 22 (see also note 36). ISBN 978-3-7319-0089-4 .
4. ↑ See the restored version . Retrieved November 10, 2017.
5. ↑ See the restored versions of the Baptist and the Evangelist . Retrieved November 10, 2017.
6. ↑ See the restored version . Retrieved November 10, 2017.
7. ↑ See the restored version . Retrieved November 10, 2017.
8. ↑ See the restored version . Retrieved November 10, 2017.
9. ↑ See the restored version . Retrieved November 10, 2017.
10. ↑ See the restored version . Retrieved November 10, 2017.
11. ↑ See Jacques Daret: Birth of Jesus and Robert Campin: Marriage of Mary .
12. ↑ Stephan Kemperdick, Jochen Sander (ed.): The master of Flémalle and Rogier van der Weyden . Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2008, pp. 247–250.
13. ↑ See the restored version . Retrieved November 10, 2017.
14. ↑ See the tracing of the portrait of Isabella of Portugal .
15. ^ ^{A b} Norbert Schneider: Jan van Eyck. The Ghent Altarpiece . Fischer Taschenbuchverlag, Frankfurt am Main 1986, p. 19.
16. ^ Norbert Schneider: Jan van Eyck. The Ghent Altarpiece . Fischer Taschenbuchverlag, Frankfurt am Main 1986, p. 24.
17. ^ Augustine: De civitate Dei . XVIII, 23. Online in the Library of the Fathers of the Church See there the quotation and the translation in footnote 2. Retrieved on December 30, 2016.
18. ↑ Christina Meckelnborg: The inscription of the Ghent Altarpiece - a philological consideration . In: Stephan Kemperdick and Johannes Rößler (eds.): The Ghent Altarpiece by the van Eyck brothers . Publication accompanying the exhibition The Ghent Altarpiece by the van Eyck brothers in Berlin. 1820-1920 . State Museums in Berlin - Prussian Cultural Heritage 2014, p. 114 f. ISBN 978-3-7319-0089-4 .
19. ↑ Christina Meckelnborg: The inscription of the Ghent Altarpiece - a philological consideration . In: Stephan Kemperdick and Johannes Rößler (eds.): The Ghent Altarpiece by the van Eyck brothers . Publication accompanying the exhibition The Ghent Altarpiece by the van Eyck brothers in Berlin. 1820-1920 . National Museums in Berlin - Prussian Cultural Heritage 2014, p. 119. ISBN 978-3-7319-0089-4 .
20. ↑ Stephan Kemperdick: The history of the Ghent Altarpiece . In: Stephan Kemperdick and Johannes Rößler (eds.): The Ghent Altarpiece by the van Eyck brothers . Publication accompanying the exhibition The Ghent Altarpiece by the van Eyck brothers in Berlin. 1820-1920 . National Museums in Berlin - Prussian Cultural Heritage 2014, p. 27. ISBN 978-3-7319-0089-4 .
21. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Erwin Panofsky: The old Dutch painting. Their origin and essence ("Early Netherlandish Painting"). DuMont, Cologne 2001, volume 1, p. 217.
22. ↑ Augustine: De Trinitate , I, 6, 9
23. ↑ Björn R. Tammen: Adaptations of vocal polyphony in the picture and through the picture . In: Alexander Rausch and Björn R. Tammen (eds.): Musical repertoires in Central Europe (1420–1450) . Böhlau-Verlag, Vienna et altera 2014, p. 231. Online . Retrieved November 11, 2017
24. ↑ Michael Oberweis: The floor of heaven. An enigmatic inscription on the Ghent altarpiece by Jans van Eyck . P. 3 PDF. Retrieved May 24, 2015.
25. ^ ^{A b} Norbert Schneider: Jan van Eyck. The Ghent Altarpiece . Fischer Taschenbuchverlag, Frankfurt am Main 1986, p. 48.
26. ↑ Stephan Kemperdick and Johannes Rößler: The Ghent Altarpiece in Berlin 1820-1920 - History of a Rediscovery . In: Stephan Kemperdick and Johannes Rößler (eds.): The Ghent Altarpiece by the van Eyck brothers . Publication accompanying the exhibition The Ghent Altarpiece by the van Eyck brothers in Berlin. 1820-1920 . State Museums in Berlin - Prussian Cultural Heritage 2014, p. 114 f. ISBN 978-3-7319-0089-4 .
27. ↑ ^{a b c} Erwin Panofsky: The old Dutch painting. Their origin and essence ("Early Netherlandish Painting"). DuMont, Cologne 2001, volume 1, p. 213.
28. ↑ ^{a b} Stephan Kemperdick: The history of the Ghent Altarpiece . In: Stephan Kemperdick and Johannes Rößler (eds.): The Ghent Altarpiece by the van Eyck brothers . Publication accompanying the exhibition The Ghent Altarpiece by the van Eyck brothers in Berlin. 1820-1920 . State Museums in Berlin - Prussian Cultural Heritage 2014, a. a. P. 17.
29. ↑ Johanna chopenhauer: Johann van Eyck and his followers . Vol. 1. Frankfurt (Main), 1822, p. 61 f.
30. ↑ Sam Segal: The plants in the Ghent Altarpiece. In: De arte et libris. Festschrift Erasmus 1934–1984. Amsterdam 1984, pp. 403-420.
31. ↑ Christina Becela-Deller: Ruta graveolens L. A medicinal plant in terms of art and cultural history. (Mathematical and natural scientific dissertation Würzburg 1994) Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1998 (= Würzburg medical-historical research. Volume 65). ISBN 3-8260-1667-X , pp. 191–198 ( The Ghent Altarpiece ), here: pp. 191, 193–198 and 210.
32. ↑ Stephan Kemperdick: The history of the Ghent Altarpiece . In: Stephan Kemperdick and Johannes Rößler (eds.): The Ghent Altarpiece by the van Eyck brothers . Publication accompanying the exhibition The Ghent Altarpiece by the van Eyck brothers in Berlin. 1820-1920 . National Museums in Berlin - Prussian Cultural Heritage 2014, pp. 51–54.
33. ^ The wording of the ode by Lucas de Heere
34. ^ Nils Büttner: Johannes arte secundus? Or: who signed the Ghent Altarpiece? . In: Thomas Schilp (Ed.): Dortmund and Conrad von Soest in late medieval Europe. Bielefeld 2004, pp. 179-200.
35. ↑ Volker Herzner: Jan van Eyck and the Ghent Altarpiece . Edition Werner, Worms 1995, p. 10.
36. ↑ Translation: I was called Hubrecht van Eyck, / Now the food of worms, formerly known / Very highly honored in painting: / Something was brief, but soon it was not wrong. // In the year of the Lord, that is certain / A thousand, four hundred twenty and six, / In the month of September, eighteen days long / Gave God my soul in pain. Original text and translation from Alexandra Merth: The riddle of the tomb slab of Hubert van Eyck . Vienna 2008, p. 13 f
37. ↑ Émile Renders: Hubert van Eyck, personage de legend . Paris et altera 1933.
38. ^ Émile Renders: Jean van Eyck: Son oeuvre, son style, son évolution et la légende d'un frère peintre. Bruges 1935.
39. ↑ Stephan Kemperdick: The history of the Ghent Altarpiece . In: Stephan Kemperdick and Johannes Rößler (eds.): The Ghent Altarpiece by the van Eyck brothers . Publication accompanying the exhibition The Ghent Altarpiece by the van Eyck brothers in Berlin. 1820-1920 . State Museums in Berlin - Prussian Cultural Heritage 2014, p. 21.
40. ↑ See the restored version . Retrieved November 11, 2017.
41. ↑ See the restored version . Retrieved November 11, 2017.
42. ↑ Christina Becela-Deller: Ruta graveolens L. A medicinal plant in terms of art and cultural history. (Mathematical and natural scientific dissertation Würzburg 1994) Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1998 (= Würzburg medical-historical research. Volume 65). ISBN 3-8260-1667-X , pp. 191–198 ( The Ghent Altarpiece ), here: p. 192.
43. ↑ Marcus van Vaernewijck: audtheyt the Spieghel the Nederlandscher . Gent (Te Ghendt) 1568. Dat vierde Boeck. Cap. xiv. Fo. C.xix. Transcribed and quoted by WH James Weale : Hubert and John van Eyck. There Life and Work. London and New York 1908, p. Ixxxvii: Item een ​​heeft den voet van deser tafel gheweest, by den zelven meester loannes van Eyck van waterverwe geschildert, de whelcke tommighe bad signs (zoo men zecht) haer hebben passed te wasschen, often to yveren , end lifting dat miraculeus constich were, met hun calvers handen uut gevaecht de welcke met de voornoomde table, sea weert what dan tgout dat men daerop ghesmeedt zoude connen legghen .
44. ↑ Johannes Rößler: The Ghent Altarpiece in Berlin 1820-1920 - History of a Rediscovery. In: Stephan Kemperdick and Johannes Rößler (eds.): The Ghent Altarpiece by the van Eyck brothers . Publication accompanying the exhibition The Ghent Altarpiece by the van Eyck brothers in Berlin. 1820-1920 . State Museums in Berlin - Prussian Cultural Heritage 2014, p. 84.
45. ↑ Johannes Rößler: The Ghent Altarpiece in Berlin 1820-1920 - History of a Rediscovery. In: Stephan Kemperdick and Johannes Rößler (eds.): The Ghent Altarpiece by the van Eyck brothers . Publication accompanying the exhibition The Ghent Altarpiece by the van Eyck brothers in Berlin. 1820-1920 . State Museums in Berlin - Prussian Cultural Heritage 2014, p. 82.
46. ↑ See Dirk Schümer: Dunkelmann und Gotteslamm. The investigation into the "Righteous Judges" is reopened [for an exhibition in the Ghent cultural center on the investigations since 1934], in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of November 11, 1995, 33.
47. ^ Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage: Restoration of the Ghent Altarpiece - Presentation of the project . PDF 916 KB, Retrieved September 14, 2017.
48. ^ Deutsche Welle: "Ghent Altarpiece: Sensational find during restoration" , accessed on February 4, 2020

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on September 16, 2006 .