The Catholic Church, the Belgian authorities and international curators do not know how to react to the opening of the conservators working on restoring the appearance of the artwork, known as the “Ghent altarpiece”. This composite painting is in the Catholic Cathedral Saint Bavo Cathedral in the Belgian city of Ghent and is one of the oldest paintings in Europe, if not the world, written in oil paint. Thanks and good survived since the creation in 1432. However during restoration it turned out that the artists have committed a serious provocation to the creation of the image of the sacrificial lamb in the lower part of the picture.

Restoration work on the “Ghent altarpiece” are conducted by a team from the Royal Institute for cultural heritage of Belgium, has already cost millions of euros and was initially considered controversial. On the one hand, nearly all leaf age in six hundred years must be cleaned from the layers of dust, dirt and grease. On the other – already in the preparation phase, the analysis of x-rays, it became apparent that the picture was deliberately redrawn. And first it began to make the authors themselves – the brothers Hubert and Jan van Eiki. But why?


Retouched and original versions

Preliminary analysis showed that up to 70 % of the surface of the painting are traces of retouching. The restorers started with a few small fragments, which successfully revealed minor elements, like buildings in the background. And when convinced of the reliability of the chosen method – cleaned up the sacrificial lamb, which was most of the issues. From under a layer of old varnish on they looked huge, close a person’s eyes – or rather, Jesus himself.

No doubt, that is just not the eye of the sheep, and it is a recognizable technique of drawing the face of God when the eyes have perfect symmetry, and the pupils are located exactly in the center. This creates a special effect – no matter under what angle the viewer is not looking at the picture, it looks like the drawn character looks straight into his eyes. The technique is widely used in the Christian iconographic tradition, to impress on the believers, and artists to automatically move it to the lamb. But then, apparently, considered this action inappropriate or even provocative, and therefore redrew the lamb in a more neutral style. However, this is only one of the versions.


Source — The Art Newspaper