Adoration Of The Mystic Lamb: the Ghent Altarpiece, 2013

Ghent has a great old cathedral, St. Bavo's, dating from 942,
the present building beginning as Romanesque, later Gothic,
14th century and later still, some Baroque interior after the
rebellion against Charles V...

Nave view

Some glass, not particularly old nor
noteworthy

And a crypt that is old, large, accessible, and particularly noteworthy for its frescoes
and Romanesque features

What St. Bavo's is known for, however, is the so-called "Ghent Altarpiece," properly
known as the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, by Hubert and Jan van Eyck; Hubert
was allegedly Jan's brother, the only mention of whom anywhere is on the dedication
of this painting; I have my own theory of who Hubert van Eyck was and think it
simpler and more fitting to think of it just as Jan's work; it is his masterpiece, and of
a piece with many other paintings of his that have survived; it was finished and
presented in 1432, one of the first large oil paintings; as a polyptych, it is of course
many large oil paintings

The center panel; this is a photo of a large copy in one of the cathedral's side chapels

Up closer, off the web, just the central panel; rancid with Medieval symbolism

With all their varying light, cathedrals are really not very
good places for displaying great art, even copies; but notice
the expressions on these women's faces, the detail and
emotion...1432, folks...compare with what Giotto and friends
were doing about this time...no comparison!

Saints, martyrs, the usual suspects...

Back outside the copy chapel, in the nave, here are a clothed Adam and Eve,
two of the wing panels; some centuries after van Eyck, it was decided that nude
figures were inappropriate, so they were clothed; and here they are

And now we are in the special display room, off the narthex, where the real
Adoration of the Mystic Lamb is displayed; no fotos, of course; but I couldn't
resist; this is possibly my favorite painting

Even in the special room, behind a wall of
bullet-proof glass, and a metal detector, the
lighting is not wonderful; but it is no less
impressive

Meanwhile, back in Heaven, above; Mary and John interceding

Pilgrims

Stigmata rays bouncing all around; note the background landscape/cityscape;
also the greenery and flowery detail...

And, for one brief shining (but not flashing) moment, no one
between me and the Lamb of God

Next day, out at Ghent's Museum of Fine Arts, mostly for the Breughels and Bosch,
we also peeked in at the ongoing restoration of the various panels of the Mystic Lamb

Of course, like all triptych and polyptych altar pieces, the Adoration is fully 
painted on both sides of the folding panels ...often the back-side is just as 
interesting as the front...glorious stuff...especially from Van Eyck, 
generations before the High Renaissance in the south...