Ghent Altar - a church folding altar (folding altar ) in the Catholic Cathedral of St. Bavon in the Belgian city of Ghent ( East Flanders ). Created by order of Jos Weidt ( Dutch Joos Vijdt ), a wealthy donor to the Church of St. John the Evangelist (XV century), which later became the Cathedral of St. Bavon ( 1561 ), for the personal chapel of his wife.
| ||
| Hubert van Eyck , Jan van Eyck | ||
| Ghent Altar . | ||
| 375 × 520 cm | ||
| St. Bavon Cathedral , Ghent | ||
| ( inv. ) | ||
An inscription on the altar indicates that it was begun by Hubert van Eyck , "the greatest of all," and finished by his brother Jan , "second in art." Consecrated on May 6, 1432 .
The altar consists of 24 panels, which depict 258 human figures. The height of the altar in the central part reaches three and a half meters, the width (in open form) - five meters. The paintings that make up the altar are located on the outer and inner side of the altar.
The theme of the altar is the worship of the Lamb from the Revelation of John the Theologian , according to which prophets , forefathers , apostles , martyrs and saints flock to the altar, on which stands the Lamb, symbolizing Christ .
Content
Outside of the Altar
On the outside of the altar is a donor and his wife, praying in front of the statues of John the Baptist and John the Theologian . In the middle row is the scene of the Annunciation . The figures of the Virgin Mary and the archangel Gabriel are separated by the image of a window in which a city landscape is visible, which is believed to correspond to the view from the window in the Weidt’s house.
In the upper row of paintings are figures of the Old Testament prophets and pagan prophetesses who predicted the coming of Christ.
Donator (altar customer)
John the Baptist
John the Theologian
Donor's wife
Inside of the Altar
When opened, the dimensions of the altar are doubled.
In the center of the upper row, God the Father is seated on the throne (a number of researchers believe that this is not God the Father, but Jesus Christ). At his feet lies a crown, symbolizing superiority over all kings. To the left and right of the throne are images of the Mother of God and John the Baptist. The following are images of musician angels. Angels are depicted without wings. One of the angels ( Saint Cecilia ) plays an organ with metal pipes. The nudes of Adam and Eve complete the series.
Above Adam and Eve are scenes of the killing of Cain Abel and the sacrifice of Cain and Abel.
In the middle of the lower tier, a scene of worship of the sacrificial lamb symbolizing Christ is depicted (for iconography see the Cathedral of All Saints ). In front of the altar is a fountain - a symbol of Christianity. To the left of the fountain is a group of Old Testament righteous people, to the right are the apostles , followed by popes and bishops , monks and lay people.
Processions of hermits and pilgrims are depicted on the right side flaps. On the left wings is a procession of the army of Christ and the Righteous Judges.
Top row
Adam and the Angels
Angels and Eve
Bottom row
Righteous Judges and the Host of Christ
Worship of the lamb
Procession of hermits and pilgrims
Poetic inscription
When clearing the altar at the beginning of the XIX century. on the lower frame of the outer side of it was found a barely distinguishable quatrain ( hexameter ) in Latin, on the basis of which art critics made important conclusions about the authors of the altar:
- PICTOR HUBERTUS EEYCK. MAIOR QUO NEMO REPERTUS
- INCEPIT. PONDUS. QUE JOHANNES ARTE SECUNDUS
- [FRATER] [2] PERFECIT. JUDOCI VIJD PRECE FRETUS
- V ERS U SE X TA M A I. V OS C O LL O C AT A C TA T U ER I
- INCEPIT. PONDUS. QUE JOHANNES ARTE SECUNDUS
If the letters marked in the last line in red (here they are marked in bold), represented as Roman numerals (U = V) and added, 1432 will come out - the estimated date of creation of the masterpiece.
Altar History
In 1566, during the struggle of Flanders against Spain, the altar was transferred from the church to the tower of St. Bavon, and then to the town hall . The Protestants who won in Ghent decided to give the altar to Queen Elizabeth of England in gratitude for their help in the war. The heir to the customer of the altar was opposed and ensured that the altar remained in the city. After the transfer of power to the Catholics in 1584 , the altar was established in its former place. In 1781, the Austrian Emperor Joseph II, while visiting the cathedral, expressed dissatisfaction with the naked figures of Adam and Eve. The doors with their figures were removed and transferred to the church library.
In 1792, the French exported the four central parts of the altar to the Louvre . Napoleon also wanted to get the side wings of the altar. It was suggested that these parts of the altar be exchanged for Rubens' paintings, but the Ghent authorities refused to exchange it. Louis XVIII , who became king of France after the defeat of Napoleon , in 1815 returned four wings to Ghent.
The vicar of the cathedral later stole several flaps and sold them to a Brussels merchant. Antiquary Nieuwenhuis and collector Solly resold the shutters to the Prussian King Frederick William III for the Berlin Kaiser Museum.
In 1861, the Belgian government bought sashes with images of Adam and Eve for 50,000 francs. Parts of the altar were placed in the Brussels Museum.
During World War I, German troops, who entered Belgium in 1914 , tried to find parts of the Ghent Altar in Brussels and Ghent. The canon of St. Bavon's Cathedral van den Gein with four helpers hid parts of the altar until 1918 . Under the terms of the Versailles Peace Treaty, the side flaps acquired by Prussia in 1821 for the Kaiser Museum were returned to Ghent.
On the night of April 10 to 11, 1934, the sash of the altar with the image of “Righteous Judges” was stolen. The Bishop of Ghent received a demand to pay a million Belgian francs per fold. On November 25, 1934, a resident of Ghent, Arsen Kudertyr , dying, said in a confession that he had stolen the sash and had hidden it in the table. The shutter could not be found, and in 1945 it was replaced by a copy of the work of the artist van der Feken .
Belgian fascists wanted to give the whole altar to Hitler . On May 16, 1940, the altar was transported in three trucks to France and deposited in the castle of Pau. An agreement was signed with the fascist government that the altar could be removed from the castle only with the consent of three parties - the mayor of Ghent, the representative of the Vichy government and the German commissioner. In September 1942, representatives of Germany demanded that they be given the Ghent Altar. From the castle of Pau, the Ghent altar was transferred to Paris and combined with the art values selected for the Hitler Museum in Linz and for Goering's private collection. Then the altar was transported to Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria .
At the end of the war, the Nazis decided to bury art treasures in abandoned mines. On April 10, 1945, several heavy-duty trucks arrived in Salzburg . SS Hauptsturmfuhrer Helmut von Gummel, with assistants from the Rosenberg headquarters, decided to destroy everything brought in the mines. A group of Austrian partisans managed to take control of the mines, and Kaltenbrunner ordered the bombings to be stopped.
On May 8, 1945, the Third American Army captured the mines. The altar was delivered to Munich , and on August 20, 1945 he returned to Belgium.
Other Details
Altar with the Lamb
Fountain
Angels singing
Angels playing music (with harp , positivity and viela )
Army of Christ
Cain and Abel
Detail of the outside of the altar
Detail of the outside of the altar
A Modern Version of the Ghent Altar
As part of the 54th Venice Biennale, in June 2011, the Post-vs-Proto-Renaissance art project of Ukrainian artist Oksana Mas was carried out to create fragments of the Ghent Altar assembled from modules in the form of eggs [3] (English) [4] [5] Each fragment of the Ghent Altar measuring 6 × 6 meters is created from hand-written wooden eggs. In general, the installation with an area of 92 × 134 meters is embodied from 3,840,000 eggs. Representatives of more than forty countries of the world participate in the creation of the international project [6] .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 http://vlaamseprimitieven.vlaamsekunstcollectie.be/nl/collectie/de-aanbidding-van-het-lam-gods-open
- ↑ The word frater was added spellingly (in the original, it was completely erased).
- ↑ Serhii Horytsvit An altarpiece made of ... eggs - The Day, No. 19, January 31, 2011
- ↑ Opening of the Ukrainian pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale - STB Channel. June 1, 2011
- ↑ Giant Easter egg “Altar of Nations” on display in Kiev - CNN iReport, May 12, 2012
- ↑ An altar the height of an 8-storey building will be installed on Sophia Square - Today, May 10, 2012
Literature
- B. Assumption, Ghent Altar by Jan van Eyck, M. 2013 ISBN 978-5-903190-59-1
- Early Netherlandish Triptychs . University of California Press (1969). Date of treatment August 8, 2010.
- Peter Schmidt. The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb . Ludion (2001). Date of treatment September 6, 2010.
Links
- History of the famous Ghent Altar
- The mysterious story of the Ghent Altar
- Ghent Altar or Mystery of the Lamb in St. Bavon's Cathedral Ghent
- Theft of the Righteous Judges panel
- Closer to Van Eyck: Rediscovering the Ghent Altarpiece - The Getty Foundation online project, recreating the Ghent Altar in macro, infrared photography and radiography