Talk:Ghent Altarpiece

Where is it??

Where is it exactly now? Maybe that is important to be in the article? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.57.23.82 (talk) 01:36, 11 January 2012 (UTC)

Kabbalistic influences

The Adoration of the Lamb is full of symbolism. Yet the most significant key to its interpretation - one that curiously seems to have eluded the art historians - is that the central section is arranged in the form of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life.

The Tree of Life comprises three pillars and ten sephiroth. At the top of the central pillar, the pillar of Consciousness, is Kether, the Crown. This represents the Godhead through which God's will is manifest in the world. Below Kether is Da'at or Knowledge, symbolised in the painting by the Holy Spirit. At the center is Tipheret or Beauty, represented by the Lamb itself - the heart of God in the world. Next comes Yesod or Foundation, identified here by the fountain. Lastly comes Malkuth, the Kingdom. This is the world in which you and I, the observers, live. As the Kabbalistic saying goes, "Kether is in Malkuth and Malkuth is in Kether".

To the right we have the masculine pillar, the pillar of Force. At the top is Hochmah or Wisdom. Below is Chesed or Mercy represented by the women carrying palms. Below that is Netzach or Victory, which conveys cyclical repetition, represented by the popes and bishops.

To the left we have the female pillar, the pillar of Form. At the top is Binah or Understanding. Below is Gevurah or Judgement, which can be interpreted as the enforcement of tradition on a day to day basis, and represented here by the clergy. Below that is Hod or Splendor, often associated with learning and represented by the Jewish scholars.

Clearly, the artists, Hubert and Jan van Eyck, were strongly influenced by Christian Kabbalah. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Gbs (talk • contribs)

Please sign your posts. I doubt this is "the most significant key to its interpretation". If you have a source, it might be given a place in the article. Piet | Talk 09:40, 4 June 2007 (UTC)

The realization that this painting was patterned on the Tree of Life came to me in 1973 when I stood before it in Ghent. That's the only Source I can cite. To students of the Kabbalah, the connection is incontestable and the significance profound. First, it indicates that the Christian mystical tradition in the Netherlands in the early fifteenth century had been influenced by the Kabbalah – a tradition normally associated with esoteric Judaism. Second, it suggests that the artists Hubert and Jan van Eyck had been heavily exposed to the Christian mystical tradition.

Arguably, though less blatantly, the same patterning can be seen in The Arnolfini Portrait[1]. Here you have the three pillars of the Tree of Life: the maculine and feminine pillars (albeit transposed from their traditional representation where the masculine pillar would be on the right) and the central pillar of consciousness, represented by the candelabra (kether?), mirror (tepheret?) and dog (yesod?). Gbs (talk) 09:16, 17 April 2009 (UTC)

Adam's apple

Not I think so known in English (only the thing in the male throat is so called, nowadays anyway). Do you know the botantic/English name for the species? Johnbod 20:08, 26 June 2007 (UTC)

Whereabouts during World War Two

The text says "The painting was stored in a museum in Pau for the duration of the war" but this is contradicted later when we learn it was moved to Germany on Hitler's orders. 89.100.251.145 (talk) 17:15, 7 January 2012 (UTC)

Sunday Times, Perth 28.2.1943, p. 2)

Loot for Goering

New York. "La Libre" underground Belgian newspaper, confirms that Goering has snaffled van Eyck's painting of the "Adoration of the Lamb", one of the world's greatest art treasures.

The "Adoration" was some weeks ago reported to have been presented to Goering by the French Government, which had the painting in its safekeeping since the Nazi onslaught against Belgium.

This rumor was received with scepticism, but investigation has proved it true.

Goering's loot belongs to Ghent Cathedral. Central panels, which came into the possession of the King of Prussia, were restored to the Cathedral under the Versailles Treaty of 1919. "Adam and Eve" panels, which were removed in 1781, because Emperor Joseph II. thought them "too liberal for a cathedral", were restored at the same time.

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/59175968

Image Quality

Some of the images, in particular the central figures, have a foggy quality on my computer monitor although others reproduce O.K. Can anybody improve the images? Xxanthippe (talk) 11:24, 16 November 2008 (UTC).

I've replaced three central images with clearer and more colorful examples. The problem is the inconsistency of images available in the commons; some 'foggy', which is to say dull in color, and others more chromatic. I suspect the latter are not only more pleasing but truer to the paintings. In the article a patchwork of gray and colorful images is not the best solution, but neither is a series of images unified by dinginess. Perhaps someone versed in the business of downloading images can offer improvements to what we've got. JNW (talk) 03:19, 28 November 2010 (UTC)