Blog posts

  • Revealing Van Eyck, six centuries later

    Conservation is a wonderful profession because it combines so many things: art history and science, tangibility and chemistry. Thanks to today's technology, we are revealing The Ghent Altarpiece as it originally appeared in the 15th century – and that's a magical experience when you experience it right up close.
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  • Hubert and Jan: Ghent versus Bruges?

    A whole library has been written about the role of Jan and Hubert Van Eyck. We do not know which one of the brothers painted what part of the Ghent Altarpiece. No other works of art by Hubert have been preserved, which makes him more mysterious. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t exist. This persistent myth was invented by a Nazi sympathiser from Bruges…
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  • In Ghent a short chain is the rule

    Are you someone who likes to know where the food you buy comes from? Who produced them, how they are produced, what you can do with them? Then, like me, you’re a fan of a short-chain food system, where the food on your plate has passed through as few intermediaries as possible. Local products and a short food chain are big in Ghent.
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  • The new old lamb

    Large swathes of the Ghent Altarpiece had been painted over. That took place several times in the centuries after Van Eyck. Even the lamb got a facelift. It now looks us in straight in the eye once again, like it was originally intended. But why did subsequent generations decide to make alterations to this masterpiece?
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  • Van Eyck: seeing is believing

    How can mortals ever truly perceive God? This is a theological discussion people had been having for centuries in Van Eyck’s time. The artist himself attempted to answer this question through his art. He had a vision like no other and converted it into in oil paintings. But before we talk about this in more detail, we need to talk about something else first. Ghentians of that time never saw the Ghent Altarpiece the way we do today.
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  • A new exhibition space for the Ghent Altarpiece

    Since 2021, the Ghent Altarpiece has been displayed at a new location in the cathedral. This is the third time the painting has been given a new spot. We were pretty nervous about this relocation, but after centuries, the work can once again be seen in its original splendour.
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