The Ghent Altarpiece, closed

Name: The Ghent Altarpiece, closed
Brand: Monstrance Editions
Availability: PreOrder

Hubert van Eyck (Netherlandish, died 1426) and Jan van Eyck (Netherlandish, c. 1390–1441)

Held by St Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent

Sizes

Wall upper left 16×32 in + upper centre left 20×40 in + upper centre right 20×40 in + upper right 16×32 in + lower 1 12×36 in + lower 2 12×36 in + lower 3 12×36 in + lower 4 12×36 in $1019 · $1200 bought separately

One object, sold whole, as St Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent shows it. 8 sheets, one edition, $1019 — the printed panels are at one scale within 5.9%.

Closed, the altarpiece is a building of painted stone. The 2012–16 restoration brought the stone back: MSK Gent reports that overpaint had hidden the frames' painted stone construction and their cast shadows, and Lukas – Art in Flanders describes the two Saint Johns returned to marbled stone statues.

Against that stone Van Eyck sets living people. Joos Vijd and Elisabeth Borluut kneel life-size, larger than the saints beside them. Above, the Annunciation takes place in a Ghent interior, the town visible through an arched opening. The saints are painted as carvings; the donors and the Virgin are painted as flesh.

Eight panels in two storeys as the altarpiece closes: the Annunciation above (the two sibyl units rise higher than the outer pair), the donors and the two St Johns below. Printed at one scale; the upper outer panels are 32 in high, the sibyl units 40 in, the lower row about 28 in.

Sources

Printed on demand as one edition. The whole image is printed on every sheet — never cropped to fit — so each panel carries an archival margin.