An inscription on the frame records that the enormous altarpiece, begun by Hubert van Eyck and completed by his brother Jan, was installed and dedicated in the Church of Saint John (later Saint Bavo Cathedral) in Ghent. Its dazzling realism, jewel-like detail, and mastery of oil glazing techniques influenced European painting for generations and made it one of the most stolen and coveted artworks in history.
A Latin inscription on the altarpiece's original frame, now lost, stated that the work was started by Hubert van Eyck, 'a greater than whom cannot be found,' and completed by his brother Jan, 'second in art,' at the commission of Ghent official Joos Vijd. Its installation in the Vijd chapel of Saint John's Church was celebrated on May 6, 1432.
The polyptych consists of twelve painted panels that fold like massive shutters, depicting the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb alongside donor portraits, Adam and Eve rendered with unsettling anatomical honesty, and a choir of singing angels whose expressions still seem startlingly individual six centuries later. Van Eyck's command of oil paint, layering translucent glazes to capture the sheen of velvet, the glint of jewels, and the texture of skin, set a new benchmark for illusionistic realism.
The altarpiece's later history reads like a thriller: looted by Napoleon's forces, partially sold off, stolen by Nazi operatives on Hitler's personal order during World War II, and recovered from an Austrian salt mine by the Monuments Men in 1945. One panel, the Just Judges, remains missing since a 1934 theft, its empty frame in Ghent now holding a modern replica.
Key people: Jan van Eyck, Hubert van Eyck, Joos Vijd