A $2.4 Million Restoration of the Ghent Altarpiece Has Yielded Shocking Revelations—Like the Mystical Lamb’s Humanoid Face

In a discovery that may change
art history books, a recent restoration of the Ghent Altarpiece
completed by the Royal
Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA) in Belgium has
uncovered original details in the
Van Eyck brothers’ masterpiece long-concealed since the 16th
century. 

The altarpiece itself was
completed in 1432 by Jan and
Hubert Van Eyck, and is a
canonical piece of art history whose iconography has long
challenged researchers. The three-year conservation initiative adds
further wrinkles to the ongoing conversation about the work,
including a surprisingly human-like face on the sacrificial lamb
representing Christ, and buildings that reflect the architecture of
medieval Ghent.

The project, which cost
€2.2 million ($2.44 million) to
carry out, required experts to use microscopes and a surgical
scalpel to chip away, centimeter by centimeter, at a 16-century
overpainting job. This painstaking process ultimately showed
that roughly 70% of the
altarpiece’s original outer panels had been hidden under brown
varnish for centuries. The fact came as “a shock for everybody—for us, for the church, for
all the scholars, for the international committee following this
project,” Hélène Dubois, head of the restoration, told
The Art
Newspaper.

Adoration of the Mystic
Lamb, which appears on
one of the five lower interior panels, contained a particularly
notable revelation, with the face of the sacrificial lamb being
much more human-like and engaging than previously recognized.
Describing the lamb as “cartoonish,” Dubois explained that art
historians will now need to determine why the pair of artist
brothers chose to portray the animal in such a way.

Moreover, restoration work on
depictions of buildings in the altarpiece proves that
the tower of the Cathedral in
Utrecht, which can be seen on the horizon, is part of the Van
Eycks’ original composition—dispelling what the Institute calls a
“stubborn myth” that it was a 16th-century addition.

The restored panels are now on
view to the public through mid-January 2020 at the Museum of Fine
Arts (MSK) in Ghent, after which they will be displayed in the
city’s St. Bavo’s Cathedral.

“Thanks to this restoration, you can once again
enjoy the full color richness that was established 500 years ago by
Jan Van Eyck,” said first deputy Kurt Moens of the province of East
Flanders in a statement. “Standing face to face with the Mystic
Lamb is a particularly intense encounter, something that every
Fleming should experience at least once in his life,” he
added.

The post A $2.4 Million Restoration of the Ghent Altarpiece
Has Yielded Shocking Revelations—Like the Mystical Lamb’s Humanoid
Face appeared first on artnet News.