![]() Bavo but rather the Church of Saint John the Baptist. At the time of the Ghent Altarpiece ’s conception, its intended church was not yet a cathedral dedicated to St. Bavo’s Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium, via Closer to Van Eyckīetween the donor portraits are two painted statues: John the Baptist (left) and John the Evangelist (right). The Grisaille Statues Details of the donors and grisaille statues in the Ghent Altarpiece (closed) by Jan van Eyck, 1432, St. ![]() Since the painting’s recent restoration, new secrets have come to the fore, and we can make out painted cobwebs in the niche behind the kneeling Joos. Both are shown kneeling with their hands clasped in prayer: the most common pose in painted portraits and would – once again – demonstrate the devout nature of their character. The two also commissioned the altarpiece, and Jan van Eyck has painted two extremely lifelike portraits of Joos and Elizabeth. The Ghent Altarpiece was originally installed above the altar of a chantry chapel founded by Joos Vijd and his wife Elizabeth Borluut. Often, the commission would request the inclusion of a donor portrait, in appreciation of the virtuous individual who donated the painting and who had likely paid for parts of the church building itself. ![]() Wealthy individuals would pay artists to design and paint an image that they would then donate to a religious institution to demonstrate their pious generosity. In the fifteenth century, paintings were almost always the product of commission. Bavo’s Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium, via Closer to Van Eyck The Donor Portraits Detail of the donors in the Ghent Altarpiece (closed) by Jan van Eyck, 1432, St. The Ghent Altarpiece: Closed Ghent Altarpiece (closed) by Jan van Eyck, 1432, St. The altarpiece is among the greatest polyptychs ever made and consists of eighteen panels depicting lifelike donor-portraits alongside biblical figures and scenes. Commissioned in the mid-1420s, it was not finished until 1432. ![]() While we know a lot about Jan van Eyck, as he rose to international fame during his lifetime and garnered substantial renown in the centuries that followed, significantly less is known about Hubert van Eyck.ĭue to its scale and complexity (350 x 470 cm when open), the Ghent Altarpiece took six years to complete. He invites you with this verse, on the sixth of May, to look at what has been done.” Hubert van Eyck sadly died before the painting’s completion it is thought he contributed to the compositional design, but that Jan van Eyck painted most of the painting after his death. Jan, his brother, second in art, completed this weighty task at the request of Joos Vijd. ![]() Translated, the poem reads: “the painter Hubert van Eyck, a greater man than whom cannot be found, began this work. We know this because an inscribed, Latin poem at the base of the altarpiece was discovered in 1823. The Ghent Altarpiece by (Hubert and) Jan van EyckĮngraved portraits of Jan van Eyck and brother Hubert van Eyck, 1600, via Museum Plantin-Moretus, AntwerpĪlthough the Ghent Altarpiece is considered to be Jan van Eyck ’s greatest masterpiece, the painting was, in fact, a collaboration between Jan and his older brother, Hubert. ![]()
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