Van Eyck: An Optical Revolution

Abstract

This exhibition has been hyped for at least a decade. The apropos of the exhibition is that, after eight years, the restoration of the Ghent Altarpiece, Jan and Hubert Van Eyck’s masterpiece, is finally complete. And this was to be celebrated with what has been advertized as the largest Van Eyck exhibition ever. The problem with advertizing an exhibition this way is that the pieces that are absent become even more conspicuous. And there were a lot of these. First, in a somewhat unusual move, the interior panels of the actual altarpiece (including the central panel with the famous lamb) were not part of the exhibition. Only the external panels were. And there were other famous Van Eycks missing, including the ones that are most likely to be known. The Madonna in the Church from Berlin and the Madonna and Child with Canon van der Paele from Brugge were not there (according to the curators, they are too fragile to travel). Nor were the Arnolfinis from London and the Madonna of Chancellor Rolin from the Louvre (according to my unconfirmed sources, as a result of power play between the museums). That is the five best known Van Eyck paintings missing.

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