Ghent Altarpiece by Van Eyk - explained

Hi, welcome to Stories of Art. My name is Karel Huidekoper. Today I want to tell you the story of the Ghent Altarpiece, which I think is quite exciting because it's one of the most impressive works of art in the entire world. It's of an astonishing beauty and made by Jan and Hubert van Eyck almost 600 years ago. It was unveiled in 1432 on the 6th of May. And just imagine how incredible it is that you can still see something that is 600 years old and so incredibly delicate. I mean, so many bad things can happen to something in 600 years. And in this case, actually, many of those bad things actually happened to it. Just to give you an idea, it hung in a church for hundreds of years, stood in a church for hundreds of years, where the climate conditions aren't perfect, but well, that's what it was made for. And then at the end of the 18th century, it was stolen by French revolutionaries, only to be returned to Ghent when Napoleon had been defeated. Then a few decades later, someone took the altarpiece apart and sold several panels of it. And it ended up with an art dealer in Britain and eventually went to an art collection in Prussia. It was returned after World War I as part of the war payments for all the damage in the war and such. Then in 1934, two panels were stolen. Someone broke into the cathedral and removed, well, one of the sections that contained two panels. They were placed back to back. And this thief then returned one part and kept the other one for ransom. And so one of the two is back, but the other one actually was never recovered. And then, of course, during World War II, it was stolen again, this time by the Nazis. They first stored it in an art storage somewhere in a city, but decided that that was too risky because of all the bombings. And then stored it in the salt mine, which I guess bomb-wise was safer, but still, they had to contend with all the salt. It was recovered. That's actually the subject of the movie, the Monuments Man, and the book, of course. And again returned to Belgium, where it had to be restored because it had suffered quite a bit of damage from, well, all the transportation and the salt and everything. Then it was still on display in the Sint Baaf. It simply stood in its own chapel and was visible for all to see. I've been told that at some points, simply that the bus drivers from tourist buses would come in and open and close the thing. There was no oversight. And in the 80s, I remember there was a man standing next to it who would open and close it every 15 minutes. So every 15 minutes, you could see either the inside or the outside of it. And that was it. At the end of the 1980s, they gave it its own chapel, which was more secure. But it turns out that climate-wise, that wasn't ideal either. And now they've built this new section in the church where it will be stored from now on, so everyone can see it. It's currently undergoing a restoration, which was supposed to be a fairly quick operation, where they would remove the old varnish, which would yellow and get dirty over time. So you remove them, well, once a century, ideally. And then you replace it with a new one. In the meantime, between those things, you can fix a few of the damages that have occurred over time. But this is the first restoration where they could actually look at it with the new techniques, which is the sort of things that have been developed in the past, well, 40, 50 years. X-rays, infrared reflectology, stereo microscopes, infrared, you name it, all the newer techniques. And that actually revealed a number of exciting things, and meant that the restoration has gone on for much longer than originally planned. But it's very, very exciting. It's about as exciting as things get in the world of art history. Because what they found, at least, they started on the outside panels. And what they found pretty quickly is that almost 70% of the entire outside was overpainted. And with a team of experts from around the world, they decided to remove that overpainting. It's something that's not without risk, because if it's too well attached, you can't get it off without damaging the layers underneath, and then you destroy the whole thing. But what they've done is they've removed it, and the result is, I think, spectacular. Now, last year, they were finished with the outside, eight years on. They were supposed to restore the whole thing in a year and a half. Now it's eight years later, and the outside is done, and some of the inner panels have been done as well. But you can still see it, because they only take out one or two panels at a time, and the rest is still in place. So you can still enjoy the most of it. Now, I'm going to tell you the story of this altarpiece, which is, to me, mostly the stories it tells and the way it was depicted. And along the story, I will also mix in the new stuff that has been discovered. And perhaps I have to do this video again in a year or two, because they've discovered too many new things. But we'll see that when we get to it. I'm going to get started on the outside, and then work my way to the inside. I'll discuss all the panels, and you'll see that all of them tell stories. You'll see by the end of this video that they all tie in together into one, what we will call, one coherent iconography. So they all fit together into one bigger story. So let's get started. What can you actually see here? And the exciting thing is, I can show you side by side of the outside, two pictures of the outside before restoration and after restoration. By the way, many of these pictures I've taken of the restoration come from the website of the institute that has been doing this, and is still doing it today. There's a link below. They have this website where you can zoom into everything, and it's... I love it. Anyway, there's a link below. Check it out at some other time, and we'll get started with the story. All right, so we know that the altarpiece was made in the 15th century. It was finished in 1432 and unveiled on the 6th of May. But how do we know that? Well, for one, it says so on the altarpiece itself. You can see that right at the bottom, all the way down there on the frame, there's a poem. You see four different panels here, and underneath each panel there's one line of poetry. In Latin, and freely translated, it says this was started by Hubert van Eyck, best of his art. It was finished by Jan van Eyck, the second in his art. It was paid for by Jodocus Veit, and it was unveiled on the 6th of May of 1432. Apparently, it was important to them that it was unveiled on the 6th of May of 1432. But all of this, obviously, it tells us who made it and for whom. And that helps us, because these two people that we see here on the flanks, it identifies, well, the man. He is Jodocus Veit, mostly known as Joos, and he was married to Lisbeth Borluut. Both of them came from prominent families in Ghent. Both were rich. He was a merchant and a politician. He worked as assistant mayor for a while. He had all kinds of political appointments. But most of all, he was the main council of Philip the Good. And Philip the Good was the Duke of Burgundy. Burgundy is a long way away in France, but he had become very, very big. And by the 15th century, the Dukes of Burgundy actually owned what is today Belgium and the Netherlands and Luxembourg and, well, a bunch of territories in what is now France. And everywhere in the main cities, he had his own local advisors. And Joos Veit was the main one in Ghent. Now, we know that he was wealthy. So was his wife. And they didn't have any children. And they commissioned this very expensive altarpiece. One, because they had money. And two, they didn't have anyone to leave it to. And three, they wanted their own legacy. And, of course, get into heaven quicker. And, well, the legacy bit at least worked. We still know who Joos Veit is. And I doubt that we would have known otherwise. Now, what we see here, these two donors, they're sitting here in prayer in a sort of painted architectural setting, as if they're in a sort of a niche in a church. And in between them, we see two painted statues. They're of John the Baptist and of John the Evangelist. Now, the church that all of this is in, it's now a cathedral called Sint Baaf. But at the time that this was unveiled, this was not yet a cathedral. It was a normal church dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. So you might expect Saint John the Baptist here on this altarpiece. But since it's named Saint John, it's not that odd to find the other Saint John there as well. And that is, of course, Saint John the Evangelist. And he's standing right next to him. You see them painted as if they're statues. So in black and white, grisaille is what it's usually called. That is the sort of usual way to paint the outside of an altarpiece. Usually, altarpieces were painted in bright colors on the and in very subdued tones on the outside. For one, it was cheaper to use these simple colors. And of course, the outside would get damaged more than the inside, because it would usually be closed. But also, it would make the act of opening it much more festive. You go from very subdued colors to the very bright colors that are inside. By the way, the Saint Day of Saint John the Evangelist is the 6th of May. That's when it was celebrated in Belgium at the time. Which might just have something to do with the fact that he's there. Because remember, that's the day that this altarpiece was unveiled in 1432. Above the lower section of the altarpiece, there is this lovely scene of the Annunciation. This is where the angel Gabriel comes to Mary and tells her that she is pregnant, that she's going to have Christ. He has lilies with him, as he is sort of supposed to. There are supposed to be lilies there. At an Annunciation, you're supposed to have lilies. And look at these magnificent colors in the wings and all the jewels that are on there. And as magnificent as they are, they are also painted in sort of a subdued color anyway. We know from the restoration, from the x-rays and the infrared reflectology, that these four panels were originally planned to have the same sort of architectural setting as the lower four. The same sort of arches as if they're in a church. But for some reason, Jan van Eyck changed that and made it into a room, into a more of a, well, a homely sort of setting. Of course, you're allowed to change your mind while you're working and, well, he did. And now we have this room where the angel has come in and we can see through the windows the city of Ghent. There's a sort of a cityscape down there. I'm not sure if these are actually buildings that have once existed, but they sure are reminiscent of a northern European medieval city. If you look this room, there's sort of a perspective here. You can see it's almost as if he knew mathematical perspective, which he didn't. No one probably did. The experiments that Brunelleschi did in Florence were years after this altarpiece was finished. Two years to be exact. Well, Jan van Eyck simply didn't know about them, but he approached perspective, well, pretty closely. Especially if you look at the tiles on the floor, it really makes you think he had some sort of knowledge of it. But it's nowhere near as exact as precise mathematical perspective. If we move a little bit over to the left, you see this little niche here where there's a towel, there's a washing basin in silver, and there's sort of a church-like architecture around it. A sort of gothic architecture. This is sort of reminiscent, on the one hand, of something people would actually have. These sort of washing basins where you could wash your hands and wash your face and that sort of thing. It's a simple bathroom type thing. And it tells us that Mary was clean. And the towel is clean as well, so it's a clean and proper household. It also tells us of some of the things to come, that is, of baptism. That's why it's set in a church sort of architecture. Before Jesus, babies would be circumcised, and Jesus introduced baptism. Well, actually, his cousin, Saint John the Baptist, obviously. But Christianity, of course, adopted baptism instead of circumcision. And then we see Mary, all the way on the left, looking, well, almost bored, I would say, with a pigeon on her head, which is, of course, the Holy Ghost. And she speaks back to Gabriel. And what's fun is that her words are written upside down, I suppose, so that God up in heaven could read them. Some of the details that you can see in this picture have really come out since it's been cleaned again. Just look at this book at the back, with a sort of jeweled placeholder, and a candlestick, and this jug that's there, tin jug. And, of course, I would say a Bible, the Old Testament, of course, because the New Testament is just beginning right here. And also, when you look in the back, out of the window, you can see, well, medieval buildings. And this lovely little flask with a fluid in it just breaks the light. I don't think it has much of a symbolic meaning, but it's just the joy of seeing something as beautiful as that, isn't it? Now, on the very top, there are four more figures. And they all have something to do with foretelling the coming of Christ. On the far left and far right, there are prophets, and the two in the names, they're written on the picture frame. So we know that on the far left, there's Zachariah. And on the far left, there's Micah. As I said, both prophets, and they both had quote, they both have verses in the Bible where they say something about the coming of Christ. Those quotes are written in these scrolls that you can see behind them. Zachariah, by the way, has an extra reason of being there, because he's also the father of St. John the Baptist. Now, the two ladies in the center are sybils. And these sybils, they are actually pagan figures. They come from ancient Greece. The ancient Greek had oracles. You may have heard of the one in Delphi. That was by far the most famous one. And in Delphi, there were, just like in all the other oracles, there were priestesses that would do prophecies. These prophecies were often written down. And from these written records, we have some prophecies that foretell the coming of Jesus, or you can interpret them that way. We don't know any of these priestesses by name, because they're a nameless group of people over a very long period of time. So they're always known by the city of their oracle. There's a Delphic one from Delphi, but that one is not here. Here we have Eritrea and Kumea. And Kumea, I don't know where that is, but she's the one on the right. And she is dressed as a fashionable northern European lady, with a veil and a sort of net with pearls in them, covering her hair, and a beautifully painted fur coat as well. And on the left is the Eritrean one. She actually comes from Eritrea, which is in Africa, and was at the time of Jan van Eyck seen as a Muslim as Turkish. And that's why she has this turban on. And she has this sort of, well, Arab kind of look to her. Not very African, I think, but well, this is what they imagined Eritreans to look like, I suppose. As I said, all of these four foretold the coming of Jesus, and therefore the start of the New Testament. And then we open it up and we see basically the end of the New Testament. And of course, this wonderful world of color that we're suddenly in, and these jewel-like sort of colors that Jan van Eyck could make. One of the things that always strikes me when you open it up, though, is that there's a large difference between the upper part and the lower part of the altarpiece. The lower part is made up of all kinds of small figures, very delicately painted. And then the upper part are all very, very big figures. Now, I'm not the only one who's seen that, of course. And it has prompted people to imagine that these are two different altarpieces that have been stacked one on top of the other. Actually, the lower part and the upper part open separately. So that could be an argument that they're actually two different ones. There are more arguments for that. For instance, the center three figures are all painted to be seen head-on, so at eye height. But they're placed much higher. And there's no consideration made for that height difference. So you're looking up at them and that makes the perspective slightly off. So could they originally have been intended to be placed lower? Who knows, really. Of course, also the altarpiece has been taken apart so many times and been reassembled that we really don't know that this is the original set of panels that was made for the altarpiece. And there's even this one story of its first restoration. When it was about a century old, it was restored by a man called Jan van Scorel. He was a painter. And he's probably the one responsible for the many over paintings that I mentioned before and I shall mention again. Because for a painter it would often be easier to paint over a large section of, say, a cloak instead of trying to fix very small bits. But Jan van Scorel apparently told people that he was very much impressed by the altarpiece, but it was in very bad shape. And that one of the panels was in such bad shape that it was lost. And, according to him, that panel showed the last judgment. And that's weird because there is no last judgment here. Well, of course, according to him it was lost so he couldn't have it. But where would it have been? It's very difficult to imagine where you would have an added panel. Now, one of the theories would be that the center three figures are actually replacements for that lost last judgment. But that's just a theory. We have no evidence for it. There is another possibility that a last judgment or last judgment scenes could have been used for the predella. A predella sort of functioned as a foot of an altarpiece. You place it on top of a predella. And that usually has small images as well. Perhaps there were images of a last judgment there. And it helps that we don't have a predella. So that fits in with that story. It could also be that Jan van Squarel simply made a mistake. Well, we simply don't know where it would have been. And, on the other hand, there's a very good argument saying that they do fit together. And these panels were always meant to be together. Because in this current restoration they have examined the wood it all has been painted on. And it turns out that several of the planks used in the lower section come from the same trees as planks in the upper section. Now what does that tell us? Well, it tells us that all of this wood comes from one batch. So it was delivered at the same time. So probably all of these panels were made around the same time as well. And how many big altarpieces would Hubert van Eyck have been making at the same time? And especially considering that we don't have any others. So perhaps they were always intended to be together in this way. And maybe the difference in style comes from two different brothers working on the same project. Now let's focus on these three figures in the center. Usually on an altarpiece you'll see as the center image there would be either the virgin and child or a crucifixion. That is in Western Europe. Here we see three figures and it's from left to right the Virgin Mary, then either God or Christ and then Saint John the Baptist. And as I said you don't really see that on altarpieces in the West. You do see it in the East though. It's a clear influence of the Orthodox Church. In the Eastern Orthodox Church this is called the diocese. And diocese comes from the Greek word for prayer. And here you have one from Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. It's about 200 years older than the Ghent altarpiece. And here you see the same group together. And it has a function. Both Mary and Saint John the Baptist plead on behalf of the living for their souls to Christ. Christ then sits in majesty in the center just as he does here. So it's strangely an Orthodox influence on this altarpiece. But it's not so strange to find Saint John the Baptist here as the church that it was in was dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. And as we shall see, baptism is one of those things that comes back in this altarpiece all the time. Now let's focus on the man in the middle. As I said either Christ or God. And I'm the only one confused about that. In fact, art historians have been arguing about this ever since this altarpiece has been made. And theologians have been arguing about that point for much longer than that. Because of course in the Trinity they become one and who are we actually seeing. And the way he is depicted here refers directly to revelations. Right at the in chapter one. John the evangelist, the other Saint John, has this vision. And it starts and he hears a voice. And then he turns to the voice and he sees someone enthroned. Someone that looks like the Son of Man. And it doesn't say Jesus. It doesn't say Christ. It doesn't say God. Someone like the Son of Man. So it's almost deliberately vague. But one of the key elements is that he has a robe on that goes all the way down to his feet. And he has a golden sash. And that's exactly what we see here. And that's a direct reference to revelations. Because a lot of what we see here is about the second coming of Christ and the new Jerusalem. The heavenly Jerusalem that comes after. Now these three figures, none of them have an actual halo. Well they're sort of rays coming from behind the head of of Christ. I'm going to call them Christ. But all three of them actually have this sort of golden architecture around them that also sort of functions as a halo. That has Latin inscriptions that describe who they are. Which is nice and easy for us. Now he wears all of these jewels. He wears a papal crown. And he has, well, beautiful jewels everywhere. And at the hem of his robe, all the way down there, you can see that there's actually an inscription, a Latin phrase, telling us that he's the king of kings. In pearls set in his robe. He's also sitting above a different crown. Maybe an earthly crown that he's placed above. But there's also a different place in revelations where he's is sitting over a sea of crystal. And perhaps this is also a reference to that. Now on the left, there's of course Mary sitting there as a young girl. She's very often depicted as a young girl because the idea was that her beauty never left her because of her purity. She wears this wonderful crown made up of of lilies and roses referring to her purity and her love. And she's reading a book. I guess the New Testament by now. And on that book, there's a jewel. It's the same jewel that we've seen on a book on the Annunciation on the outside of this panel. Now moving to St. John the Baptist. He's sitting there as he is supposed to. Well, actually, he's a bit more majestic than usual, because he's supposed to be a hermit. And he lives out in the middle of nowhere eating crickets and dressed in a camel hair cloak. And he has the camel hair cloak on. But over it, he has this much more luxurious robe that makes him look almost regal. On both sides of the central group, this diocese, there is a choir of angels. That is, there's a choir on one side and there's a group of musicians on the other. Here they are closer together so you can see them side by side. On the one hand, you have musicians. They're called angels by the way. And it says so on the frame. And that's helpful because they don't have wings and they don't have halos. They really could be anyone. It could be normal people. But it says on the frame that they are in fact a choir of angels. That's significant to the story of the entire altarpiece. Because in Revelations, there is a moment actually pretty close to the beginning where John the Evangelist has this vision and he sees this person sitting on this throne when the heavens open. And he's surrounded by, well, various people. It depends on which part of Revelations you're in. There are elders dressed in white, but there's also music being played at some point. That choir of angels shows us that this is a heavenly scene. That this entire thing is reminiscent of that vision in Revelations. Now, the side of the musical instruments you can see someone playing a house organ, a small organ. And behind that there's a harp or a lyre and some sort of, well, stringed instrument that is sort of reminiscent of a violin, I guess. The one playing the organ has often been called Saint Cecilia by art historians. Because Saint Cecilia is a saint that plays an organ. It's her attribute. But I would think that it's kind of strange to have one saint amongst all of these angels. The other panel, you can see them singing. And the cool thing about that is that you can actually sort of see what they're singing. Some of them have their heads tilted downwards as if they're reaching for a low note. And others are, you see, sort of straining to reach a high note that is almost beyond their reach, it seems. So, you can see that they're singing different parts of a choir piece. They are all reading their parts from this stand in front of them. And this is a strange sort of piece of furniture. It has this upper part that seems to be attached with metal struts to the lower part. And in the lower part, you can see an image of an angel fighting a dragon. Now, that's another scene from Revelations, where the archangel, Michael, battles with a dragon, with evil. And since we're down here, you can see these tiles. And on them, you can see, well, the name of God written there. And of course, these little lambs, the Lamb of God. Now, let's zoom out again. And you can now see that there's, to their sides, so the outer panels, are two different figures. The two nudes, they are Adam and Eve. Again, it says so right there in the picture, so you can't be confused. And it has often been suggested that these were later additions, or were painted last. Because in the case of Adam, you can actually see that Jan van Eyck tried to accommodate for the fact that you see it from below, because of this foot he has. You can see the lower part of his toes. Admittedly, he lifts his toes, but you see the under part of his foot. Now, why are they here? Well, they are, of course, the very beginning of the story. In Genesis, of course, in Paradise, where they walked around. And they have, in this case, already sinned. They have eaten the fruit. We know this because Adam is covering himself. Eve is as well, if you look closely. And she's holding some sort of a fruit. It's not an apple, per se. But then again, in the Bible, it never says that it's an apple. It's the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of right and wrong. And nobody ever mentions that to be an apple tree. It's just sort of tradition that we've made an apple tree. But really, that fruit could be anything. I guess, preferably something we don't know. But usually, it's an apple. In this case, it's maybe a citrus fruit or something. It's not entirely clear. They are there because they committed the original sin. And of course, that's when all the trouble in the Bible began. Salvation of that original sin and all sins after comes in the middle, in the center. Now, sometimes people ask me, is Eve pregnant? She has this protruding belly. Well, that's not entirely clear. Because at the time, these protruding bellies were part of the beauty ideals. I guess you pretty much wanted women to look fertile. Because in many other cases where Jan van Eyck painted women who were absolutely not pregnant, they had protruding bellies as well. But in this case, there might be sort of an allusion to pregnancy intended. Why? Well, Adam and Eve were both punished in a particular way by God. Adam had to work the field in the sweat of his brow. And women, Eve, had to suffer pain during childbirth. So perhaps it's an allusion to that. And there's further allusions to children. Well, actually, their children are there. Because above them, you can see Cain and Abel. These two little scenes all the way at the top. Above Adam, you can see Cain and Abel. They are the two first sons of Adam and Eve. And they are bringing their sacrifice to Jawe. Abel brings a lamb, a sacrificial lamb, and Cain, a sheaf of wheat. Now, Abel's sacrifice was accepted by Jawe. And Cain's wasn't. That would make him so jealous that he would murder his brother. And that's what's happening right above Eve. Now, why is this story here? Well, one is that this is the first instance in the entire Bible where the sacrificial lamb is named. Also, Cain is punished for his crime. He has to wander the earth for the rest of his life. And that actually links him quite nicely with what we see below. Because in the lower part of the altarpiece, we see people who have wandered all over the planet and are coming together around one central point, which is the Lamb of God. In this central panel, which we call the Lamb of God panel, you see an altar standing in the center. And on top of it, there's this lamb. This lamb, of course, is Jesus or Christ, as it is mentioned in Revelations. And the lamb is bleeding from its side into a cup, which, of course, is about the You can see a series of angels, and they're all holding instruments that were used in the Passion of Christ. There's a cross, and the angel that's holding that cross also holds this crown of thorns. And the one next to it has a lance, and that's the lance that Jesus was pierced with. On the other side of the altar, you can see more angels, one holding the column that Jesus was tied to and And if you look really closely, you can see they're holding nails as well. Of course, the nails used to nail them to the cross. And there's another angel holding a long stick with a sponge at the end. That's a sponge of vinegar that was pushed into the face of Jesus while he was on the cross. All of these angels are singing the praise of the Lamb. And that is also from Revelations. And all of this is part of Revelations. The earth has been destroyed, and a new Jerusalem has been created. We can actually see that new Jerusalem in the background. There's a city made up of churches or, actually, all over the place you see all these churches. Right at the top, by the way, you see a sun or a light source, and in the middle of that is a dove. That's the Holy Ghost, of course. Now, in the restoration that's been going on, there have been quite a few things that they've seen in the sky. Most of that sky has been overpainted, probably in the 16th century. And so it had to be removed, and right now it looks prettier than it did before. But there's one little detail that I couldn't find described in any of the reports as they have been published so far. And that's one about this very conspicuous centrally placed tower. This is a church spire, right in the middle. And it is the only absolutely recognizable tower in the entire painting. It's a tower that is in the northern Netherlands. It's in a city called Utrecht, which, by the way, happens to be the place where I live. And this is the actual tower. It is of a very particular design, that it has two square sections on top of each other, and then an octagonal that is really open, called a lantern. Now, this is the real thing. But it's kind of strange to find this very recognizable church tower right there in the center of this painting, because this was a cathedral. It has its own bishop, and it's a different bishop than the Bishop of Ghent. It's a different diocese. So why would they have that church tower there? Well, one story I was always told is that during the first restoration, Jan van Schorel added it. Because Jan van Schorel, you know, man I mentioned before, he was from Utrecht. And maybe as some sort of tribute to his city, or to himself, he just added this. Well, that's the story I was always told. But during the restoration, of course, they could find out. Because they could see what layer of paint this is. But so far they haven't published that result. Maybe because it's so central to the picture that they don't want to remove it. Although, at the very center of the picture, they did remove something. And that's, well, if we return to the lamb for a second. This is the lamb as I'd always known it. It's a, well, a lamb. And there's always been this one very peculiar thing about it. And that is that it had four ears. You can see this, well, lamb, and his ears. And just below them, you can see there's two more sort of bits sticking out. And they're actually, well, ears. Which always told people that this is probably an overpainting. And there's a different face underneath. Now, in this restoration, they've removed this, because this is an overpainting, probably from the 16th century. They removed it and revealed what was underneath. And it's been sort of controversial, because this is a very different sort of sheep. It's not that sheep-like. The one we had before was much more like an actual sheep. This one stares at us directly, very much as sheep don't. But this is, of course, not really a sheep. It's the Lamb of God. It is Christ himself that's staring right into your face. And this is probably what Jan van Eyck intended it to be. So I guess it's an improvement that has been removed. Although, many people prefer the newer, old one. But anyway, these days you'll find this face and not the old one. Now, if we look around this altar with the Lamb of God, then you see that there's four different groups of people approaching the altar. That pretty much means they come from all the four corners of the world. Meaning, from all over. From everywhere in the entire world, people come to worship the Lamb. Now, in the background, you can see a group of church officials on the left-hand side. There's popes there. There's cardinals there. There's bishops. And they all approach, many of them holding these palm leaves. And palm leaves are there. They signify people are either martyrs or saints or both. Now, on the right, in the background, you can see a group of female saints and martyrs. Of course, indicating their sainthood and martyrdom with their palm leaves. Some of those can be recognized. Many of them cannot. Because many of them are in the background, so you can't really tell one from the other. They can, by the way, be recognized by their attributes. So, right in front of the group, on the right, there's Dorothea. She has flowers in a basket. All the way on the other side, on the left, there's one holding a lamb. And that's Agnes. Because Agnus is Latin for lamb. Next to Agnes, there is Barbara, holding a tower. Because she had been locked in a tower for her martyrdom. The one next to her actually doesn't seem to have her attribute. But usually, next to Barbara, you see Catherine of Alexandria. So, I would think that's Catherine of Alexandria. But really, we can't have any way to be sure. And if we look slightly further along the lines, you can see one lady holding an arrow. That's Ursula. Ursula was actually martyred together with 11,000 virgins. So, that really props up the numbers, I suppose. But if we move just a little bit lower, you see this other group. They're all men. And the ones in the front all have these quite similar robes on. Supposedly, they are the apostles, the group of 12. The trouble is, there's 14 of them. Now, slightly behind them, there's these three figures. There's three popes. And they've been identified to be Martin V, Gregory VII, and Alexander V. That's actually an event from pretty recent history for this altarpiece. Because they are the three popes of the Western Schism. In the 1390s, an argument had started about who was the true pope. And it was mostly between Martin V and Gregory VII. But by 1410, a third pope, Alexander V, added to this whole confusion. And they each declared themselves pope. So, there were three of them at that time. And it wasn't solved until 1418. Which, of course, for this altarpiece, is very much in living memory. Only 14 years before it was finished. The fact that all three of them are here seems to indicate that someone was hedging their bets on who was the real one. But apparently, they found them all worthy of admiration at the very least. And right behind these three popes, you see one man in a bishop's robe. And he's holding these rocks. That's Saint Stephen. Saint Stephen was the first bishop of Jerusalem. Left there as bishop by the apostles. And he was stoned to death. He was the first of the martyrs. Behind them, there are, well, many more people. But we can't really recognize any of them. On the left side, we see figures from all over the world again. And right at the front, kneeling with books, are the Old Testament prophets. The ones who prophesied about the coming of Christ. And they're all reading, I suppose, from their own prophecies. Their own parts of the Old Testament. Behind them, there's two conspicuous figures. One in blue, holding a twig. It's usually assumed that that's Isaiah. Because Isaiah, of course, also prophesied about the coming of Christ. But also mentioned a twig. Behind him, in the white robe, there's a man holding laurels. And he also has a laurel wreath on his head. He's usually identified as Virgil, the poet. Very much a non-Christian poet. But an admired figure anyway. And behind them, there's a group of people with distinctively different hats. I guess that all of these different hats mean that they come from different parts of the world. That the entire world worships the Lamb. And then there are, of course, the outer panels. I'll start on the right side, where there's a panel filled with hermits. There's a whole bunch of hermit saints. People who withdrew from life and retreated into the wilderness. And there lived as hermits. Many of them are saints as well. And they were, of course, the examples for monks. The one right in front is Saint Anthony. He can be recognized by his cane. And that's Anthony of Egypt. Not Anthony of Padua. Anthony of Padua is the one that helps people find things they've lost. And this is Anthony that all the hospitals are named after. Because he apparently could cure people of swine flu and a number of other things. And there's apparently Saint Anthony's some sort of disease that apparently he could cure. But he was a hermit. And he lived in the Sinai. And he started a monastery there. Or a monastery was founded there. And it's one of the oldest monasteries in the world. Now behind them there's actually two female hermits. One of which can be recognized. And that's Mary Magdalene. She's the one with this sort of reddish dress on and holding a little jar. And that's a jar of ointment. She used ointment on the feet of Jesus. And she was one of the women who came to his tomb to embalm him. And so she had embalming stuff in a jar. So that's her attribute. The panel behind it has pilgrims. And some of them, again, are recognizable. The one in front, the very, very big one, that's Saint Christopher. Saint Christopher is the man, a giant, who lived next to a river and helped people across, for money I suppose, by carrying them across the river. And at some point a very small child came and he carried it across. And it became heavier with every step until he could hardly carry it. And at the other side he asked this child what had happened. And the child told him that he had carried the weight of the world. Well, that's Saint Christopher. Apparently if you see him once during a day your travels will be safe for that entire day. So I guess you're covered for now. Right behind him there's one with a hat on with a shell on it. That's a Jacob shell. That's the, well, Saint Jacob, signifying of course the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Now on the other side you have these soldiers of Christ. Again, it says so on the frame, so it's not that hard to identify them. So you see these people that are heavily armed and armored, knights I guess, on beautiful horses. One that bows its head so you can see the heads of the others. That's quite convenient of it. And looking from the front where there's, I guess, pretty ordinary straightforward knights, behind them there are different ranks. And you can see that there's kings there from various places in the world, because they have different headdresses on, and the emperor with the imperial crown on his head. So pretty much all the Christian kings of the world come to worship the lamb. And now there's this this panel all the way on the outside which is called the Just Judges, which is actually the one that has been stolen. And, well, we'll have a quick look now but I'll get back to it just in a minute because I want to end on that one. First we're going to go back all the way to the center of the picture, because there's this altar with the lamb on it. And in front of that there's a fountain and that fountain has eight different sides. And that particular shape most likely has a meaning. That's because it is reminiscent of a baptismal font. Baptismal fonts and chapels for baptism are usually eight-sided, because it's a symbolic number. And that symbolic number eight is the amount of days of creation. Now I hear you thinking there were seven days of creation. Yes, in Genesis there are seven days of creation. Actually six of course, one is a day of rest, but in total that's of course seven days of creation. But there's an eighth day and that's the day that heavenly Jerusalem was created. To get access to that heavenly Jerusalem you have to be baptized. And that is why baptismal fonts are usually eight-sided or have some sort of reference to the number eight in their design. And of course this altarpiece, the whole thing, has so much to do with baptism, because Saint John the Baptist is on it not once but twice. It's in a church dedicated to Saint John the Baptist, so it figures that he's there. And if you look at the front of this fountain you can see that water is actually coming out of it and it runs through this little channel to the front of the painting. Now I'm willing to bet that in the chapel where this altarpiece was placed they actually had a baptismal font right in front of it. This was the place where baptisms took place. So you could see that this holy water ran all the way down to the actual baptismal font. And there's another reason to think that, not just because it's so obviously there, but remember that on the outside there's a very specific date that says when this altarpiece was unveiled, which is the 6th of May of 1432. Now that's not any sort of incidental day. You see, there were more things that happened on that day. It was the saint's day for Saint John the Evangelist. Well, there are saint's days all over the year. But on that very day, 1432, the 6th of May, there was a baptism in the Saint John, now Saint Barth, in Ghent. And it was the baptism of the son of Philip the Good. Philip and his Isabella of Portugal had been in Ghent. She had been pregnant and was obviously going to stay there because she was so heavily pregnant she was going to give birth any time. And of course then within a couple of weeks you will have a baptism. And they were not going to travel in between. Joost Veit, of course, could see that coming. And he had this altarpiece that was all about baptism that was almost done. And if you ask me, I think he rushed production a little bit. He asked Jan van Eyck to to get at least part of the of the altarpiece ready for that baptism. So perhaps not the entire thing was done, but at least this this Lamb of God could be placed there and some of the side panels and they could unveil it and then have the baptism in front of this altarpiece. And that is the reason that we know so specifically what day it was unveiled. Even though it's actually quite likely that not the whole thing was done at that precise date. But they started using it on that date. And of course it would have been massively important to Joost Veit because Philip the Good was his boss. And to have the baptism of the son of his boss in front of his altarpiece would really write his name in history. And that of course it did. And that brings me to that one panel that I still have to discuss a little bit more closely. And that's the one of the just judges. The reason I have skipped it before is that this is a fake. Everybody knows it's a fake because this is the stolen panel. Remember in 1934 two panels were stolen. That's actually one of the doors of the Ghent altarpiece was stolen and there are two panels inside. Most of the Ghent altarpiece, actually all of it, was at first painted on single boards of oak. And they simply painted both sides. In the 19th century when they were brought to Prussia they wanted to hang these paintings in a museum. And for that reason they cut them in half. They actually made both ends visible so that you can see the front and the back next to each other. When they were joined together again in the Ghent altarpiece they were placed together in this one frame with struts behind them to space them exactly right. For that reason when it was stolen there were two panels inside instead of one. And that is why the thief could return the outer panel and keep the inner one. Now it was stolen I said in 1934. They've been searching for it ever since. Even the Nazis had special investigators searching for it all over the place during World War II. Nobody has ever found it. And so in 1952 this copy was made. Which is not and was never intended to be an exact copy. It just had to be quite close to it. It was made by a man called Jeff van der Veke. And he did a very good job because he made something that fit in really well with the rest of the altarpiece. It showed what the original looked like pretty much. But he also made sure that it would always be seen as a copy. As not the original. Because what he did is he added the face of the king of Belgium at that time. So you would always know this is a copy. This is not the real thing. He had to work from photographs that they had at the time and those are all black and white. And he had to try and copy one piece in particular. Because this face that you see here we've always thought was a self-portrait of Jan van Eyck. The reason we think that is because it looks at us, at the viewers. And that's one way that painters at later dates would always show that there was a self-portrait in a larger work. But also because it looks a lot like this portrait which is in the National Gallery in London. And that is also seen as a self-portrait by van Eyck. Mainly because it says so on the frame. It says Als Eyck Kan. In a sort of weird sort of spelling. Means the way I can do this. But also the way Eyck or van Eyck can do this. Now this face looks quite similar and so we've always thought it to be a self-portrait. One of the things is that when Jan van Eyck was making his copy the entire altarpiece was quite a bit more yellowed. Because the varnish had yellowed. And so he painted it in the same sort of tone to fit in with the rest of it. And now the rest of it has been cleaned and you have this one panel that kind of stands out that it's of a slightly different color. And I've been told that they're going to keep it that way. They're not going to try and adjust that color. They're simply going to show it clearly this is the one that's stolen. The one that's missing. Now there's one more story I want to share with you before I go. And that's about the Just Judges. As you know it was stolen and in all probability by a man called He did a lot of things but one of the things he did was a local politician. And during the time that he was negotiating with the police about the return and the ransom for the Just Judges he as a politician was holding a speech and had a stroke during his speech. He was in bad shape then and he was rushed off to his brother's house which happened to be nearby. They called the doctor and because he was doing badly they also called the priest and they called his lawyer. And while he was lying there on what turned out to be his deathbed he confessed to stealing the Just Judges. And when the police heard of this they of course searched his house and they found all the letters copies of them that had been sent to the police and the exact typewriter that had been used to to type these letters. So it's pretty clear he actually did it. They also found some some sketches that may or may not have anything to do with where he hid that last panel. I assume they also searched the house of his lawyer because he was the one who went to the police and they never found that panel. And according to the lawyer the last words of Arsène de Jourtier were and the Just Judges are hidden in and then he died. Strangely enough they never heard the doctor's side of the story or the priest's side of the story because they might have said something different. Anyway he died on this enormous cliffhanger and I can tell you in confidence, don't tell anybody else, I intend to do the same thing. When my time comes I hope to be able to that there's some sort of big art theft and I can say well I know where that and that piece is and it is and then die. So if this happens, if it reaches news stories and it reaches your feeds then at least you'll know it's a fake. Anyway this is one of the most spectacular altar pieces in the world and I would really urge you to go and see it for yourself because it's it's absolutely magnificent and the colors do not translate to pictures. So go there as soon as as possible. But before you do of course give me a thumbs up for this video if you enjoyed it. I assume so if you've lasted this long. And if for some odd reason you have not yet subscribed to my channel this would be an excellent moment to do that. There's a button below this video there's actually one in the corner as well you can press either one and you get subscribed. This has all kinds of benefits for you it's free and of course it makes it much more easy to find other videos that I have already posted. There's also this little bell icon that appears if you click that you will even be notified anytime I post a new video which of course how convenient can that be. Anyway thank you very much for watching and hope to see you again soon. Bye!