Ghent Out-Takes, 2024

I thought I'd add "well crucified" to the "well hung" genre,
but then, wait a second, what's that cleaver for?

"Got me a a red-head!"

The central old town is in pretty good shape; the outer ring is a bit
funky at times, and sometimes in need of restoration and renovation;
one wonders where the money will come from to do the many old
and probably protected structures in need of repair...

Actually, pineapple would go well with this

Everything's up to date in Ghent

Very large format Lego

Pigeons have no respect

So we're at a resto after seeing the Ghent Altarpiece,
and I notice some of the city's spires and banners
reflected in my wine glass...so van Eyck...

Interesting diversification

We were looking for the Ellipsis store but only found the Ampersand

Unusual store name

Ghent Altarpiece: Adoration Of The Mystic Lamb, 2024

We'd visited the Ghent Altarpiece twice before, in 2013 and 2015, but thanks to some interpretive signage at the MSK, the AR experience in the cathedral, a very helpful docent, and other researches, this was easily our best-informed visit. The Altarpiece has moved from the west end of the cathedral now to one of the starboard chapels, where it's displayed in the usual bomb-proof/hermetically-sealed glass enclosure. (It's easily the most stolen/attempted stolen of all major art works). You can't get up close to it at all, unlike the van Eycks at the Louvre, the Groeningemuseum, the National Gallery, or elsewhere. It's so utterly massive, however, that your distance from it doesn't seem to matter that much. When the van Eyck brothers decided to do the world's first oil painting, introducing unheard-of materials and techniques, they decided to go big. Really big. A dozen large panels, front and back, some nearly life-size. The color and detail and realism are so incredible, you forget that the work was completed in 1432. In Italy, Masaccio had just died, and they were still struggling to free themselves of International Gothic, paintings that looked more like Byzantine mosaics, still painting in fresco and tempura and gold-leaf halos. It would be a generation or two, or three, before Botticelli, Leonardo, Raphael, or Michaelangelo were born. Also Columbus. But I digress. There are van Eyck sites and articles all over the web, most notable being Closer to Van Eyck. The Lamb in one billion pixels. Incredible stuff. 1432.

Probably my best full frontal for 2024; as you can see, the new display
frame prohibits a fuller view, at least for my skills and lens; at the end of
the post is my best shot from 2013; for comparison

Lower left: the Just Judges and Holy Knights; the former

is a copy of the panel stolen in 1934 and never recovered

Lower right, Holy Hermits, Pious Pilgrims (St. Christopher

leading the way)

Detail from above; no two faces alike; many identifiable
from their attributes, etc.

Now in the upper register, which currently is undergoing

restoration at the MSK--the paintings you see here are very high

resolution photographs of the originals--this is the Angelic Choir

Sky Daddy

Queen of Heaven

St. John, interceding; I haven't found anything in the
scholarly corpus (which is vast), but I'd bet what St. John
is reading from is an identifiable text; the Altarpiece is covered
in inscriptions and allusions...sort of a Finnegans Wake of
visual art

Angelic Organist and Choir; and Eve; note Cain bonking
Abel in the grisaille above her

Back to the lower register, closer-upper of the Adorable Lamb

Virgins, Martyrs...but note especially the landscape above them;
also the martyrs waving their palm frond attributes...

Visitors can wander around behind the display to see the
outermost of the back panels; above, Judocus Vyd, who,
with his wife (below), commissioned the painting for their
chapel in St. Bavo's

Lysbette Borluut; aka Mrs. Vyd (?); probably she had the money,
which would have been considerable

Parthian shot

Now, at the docent's urging, we are in the Vyd/Borluut chapel, where
the Altarpiece spent its first seven centuries, looking at a huge display
showing all the back panels, mostly grisaille, but some in full color

All folded up: what you'd see when not in use for masses, etc.

Annunciation and Insemination; note again the distant landscape

Digital full frontal

Thank you, Judocus and Lysbette

My 2013 full frontal (Adam and Eve were already at the MSK)

St. Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent, 2024

St. Bavo's is a fine Gothic, the original site dating from the 10th century, the current building begun in the 13th, with the usual later Baroque interior. Not one of the great high Gothics, but a fine specimen nonetheless. Its chief claim to fame, of course, is the Ghent Altarpiece, properly known as The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, by Hubert and mostly Jan van Eyck, finished in 1432, the world's first oil painting. We'll get to that in the next post. For this visit to St. Bavo's I opted for the "augmented reality" tour, which takes place in the crypt but is mostly about the painting. Over the years, we've not had good luck with these AR things, but this one actually was decent, well worth the couple bucks extra. Plus we got to tarry a bit in the crypt, which is my favorite part of this church. Obviously, I have no pix from the AR, but took advantage of the opportunity to look at more of the crypt.

Approaching St. Bavo's

Nave view

Assorted relics: somebody's blood, allegedly; looks suspiciously
like the one in Bruges, maybe from the same Constantinople relics
shoppe

Helpful model and floor plan

Book of the Dead from St. Bavo's Abbey, 1406;
apparently doom scrolling is nothing new

Now in the crypt, much older, with its Romanesque
columns and capitals and clearly much older paintings 

International Gothic style, no?

Beautiful gold and silver plated reliquary for St. Macharius; unfortunately
does not specify whether it is the Macharius (Macarius) of Egypt, Macarius
of Alexandria, Macarius of Lower Egypt, or Macarius of Ghent; which
I leave for a homework assignment; the making of saints did not get
standardized, church-wide, until well into the Middle Ages, don't you
know; it was a largely local thing until then

Nice silver head on a platter; I'm going with St. John 
the Baptist

Van Eyck had painted nude Adam and Eve figures for the 
Altarpiece, but later authorities decided this was not fitting
for a church, and so had them re-done, clothed; the originals
are back with the Altarpiece now, as we'll see

Moving right along, we are back in the upstairs
church, having visited the Altarpiece and the chapel
for which it was originally done...this is Rubens'
altarpiece, St. Bavo Enters the Convent at Ghent (huh?);
the two ladies at the left, we thought, looked a bit like 
his wives

A bit of the elevation and (non-Medieval) windows

Choir

Altar

Side aisle

Reserve holy water

Organ

One of the more ornate pulpits we've seen

Back outside for the customary bronze model...sometimes done in
Braille, sometimes not