Although some scholars have argued the opposite, the Ghent Altarpiece by Hubert and Jan van Eyck, completed in 1432, was conceived as a coherent whole. From the start it was destined to visually accompany the masses that Joos Vijd and Elisabeth Borluut wished to have celebrated until the end of time...

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1. Verfasser:	Ridderbos, Bernhard 1949- (VerfasserIn)
Format:	Artikel
Sprache:	English
Veröffentlicht:	2022
Schlagworte:	Eyck, Jan van > 1390-1441 > Genter Altar Bildprogramm
Zusammenfassung:	Although some scholars have argued the opposite, the Ghent Altarpiece by Hubert and Jan van Eyck, completed in 1432, was conceived as a coherent whole. From the start it was destined to visually accompany the masses that Joos Vijd and Elisabeth Borluut wished to have celebrated until the end of time, in their chapel in the Church of St John. The iconographic program can be interpreted by reconstructing how it was composed with the help of one or more theological advisors, in order to express the donors' hopes for the salvation of themselves and their ancestors. The coincidence of the inauguration of the Ghent Altarpiece and the baptism of Josse of Burgundy on the same day, 6 May 1432, gives no reason to assume that the program of the painting was adapted to commemorate the baptism and that, contrary to what the quatrain on the exterior frames states, the whole altarpiece was not yet completed on this date. Nor should the foundation act for a daily mass in the Vijd chapel, from 13 May 1435, be seen as an indication of a later date of completion, since it appears from this document that masses were already being held at this location. The purposes that the masses had to fufill, as worded in the act, constituted the basis for the iconographic program. Whereas the images of the lower interior side panels were used for references to the Vijd family, the beatitudes that the donors hoped to attain acquired a specific significance in the Adoration of the Lamb: the tableau vivant representing the Ghent Altarpiece in 1458 and several other sources testify that the groups in this panel were intended to symbolise the Beatitudes, with accompanying texts on the lost frame. The fact that seven, instead of eight, Beatitudes were referred to can be explained by their usual connection with the Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost. A promise of being comforted, however, which is also the subject of the missing Beatitude, is written, in the upper register, in the open book of John the Baptist, who is closely related to the Adoration. The theory that the subject of the New Heaven and New Earth was chosen as a central theme of the interior is supported by two miniatures in the pre-Eyckian Apocalypse in Dietsche. They have a considerable number of motifs in common with the Ghent Altarpiece and may even have served as a source of inspiration for its program. These motifs were combined with elements from the iconography of the Deesis and of All Saints and they were attuned to the eucharistic function of the painting. The identification of the New Heaven and New Earth as the main subject of the interior leads to the insight that all parts of the exterior, including the texts of the prophets and sibyls and the text fragments in the Virgin’s book in the Annunciation, can be taken as preparing for the opened altarpiece.
Beschreibung:	Illustrationen
ISSN:	0030-672X