Life as it is: the conservation of The Ghent Altarpiece
Hardly anyone can develop as intense a relationship with The Ghent Altarpiece as we conservators. There we are, working face to face with Van Eyck, right down to each individual brush stroke. That captures your imagination, of course. People often ask me questions about what that feels like and what our working day is like. The answers are below!
Myth busting: 3 persistent fallacies about the Ghent Altarpiece
Few works of art have such mythopoetic power as the Ghent Altarpiece. That is to say: soon numerous legends sprang up about it — and they continue to be shared by many people. Sometimes they are completely made up, sometimes they contain a kernel of truth. These are three of them.
Good food is preferably fresh, tasty and locally produced, but it’s much more than that. The City of Ghent feels that food waste should be reduced to a minimum and that good food must be affordable for everyone. It will be my pleasure to tell you what Ghent does to achieve these goals.
The beauty of small things: details of the renovated cathedral
Restorers are specialists in finding a balance between old and new, between visible and invisible, between permanent and temporary. On the one hand, they want to go back to the original as much as possible, but on the other hand, they should not fake it. Just take a look at some of the details.
A woman over a thousand years old had been recovered with no name, no headstone and no jewellery. And yet we were able to get a very close idea about her life by studying her remains. What was supposed to be a small-scale investigation grew into a full-blown detective story in St Peter's Abbey.
Are these the bones of Judith, the first countess of Flanders?
If you visit St Peter's Abbey today, take note of the commemorative stone plaque behind the bike rack. In it are chiselled the names of the first Margraves (counts) of Flanders and all are said to be buried in the abbey church: Baldwin Iron Arm, Baldwin the Bald, Arnulf I & II... There is no mention of Judith, the first countess, even though she in particular may have lain only a few metres from that location.
A naive teenager, a shrew or a feminist ... who was Judith of Flanders really?
The Carolingians, the Treaty of Verdun and the invasion of the Vikings: for most of us, the 9th century consists of nothing more than vague echoes from our third year in secondary school, and is therefore a period we're particularly keen to forget about. But once you realise that the people back then were also human beings made of flesh and blood, that's when history actually becomes rock-and-roll. And that's especially true in the case of Judith, the first countess of Flanders.
The bioanthropologist Jessica Palmer directs the lab at the Ghent Archaeological Science Centre. Together with her colleagues, she examined the bones of a woman who had rested for more than a thousand years in front of the entrance to St Peter's Church in Ghent. Was this Judith, the first countess of Flanders?
Steven Vanderputten is a professor of history at Ghent University. He conducts scholarly research into our medieval society and culture, with a predilection for the period from the 9th to the 12th century – a period he is definitely does not wish to call ‘the dark Middle Ages’.
Lieve Staes handles the communication of complex spatial projects at the Project Office for Space of the City of Ghent. Her favourite subjects are the Light Plan and water. Professionally, she shares all the details through the website and walks, among other things. But even in her spare time, she can't resist taking family and friends around fairy-tale Ghent at dusk.
