Episode 20 - A Missing Piece
The Ghent Altarpiece, Part 3
The Ghent Altarpiece as installed in the Vijd chapel between 1865 and 1920. It comprises Eyckian central panels, Lagye's fur-clothed Adam and Eve and Coxcie's copies of the other shutters. Photograph, c.1910-13. (© Stadsarchief, Ghent)
Reproduced in Hélène Dubois, “The conservation history of The Ghent Altarpiece,” The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 160, No. 1386, (September 2018), pp. 754-765
Jan and Hubert van Eyck, The Ghent Altarpiece, 1432
Oil on oak, open dimensions 11 ft 6 in x 15 ft (350 x 460 cm)
St. Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent
Photos after 1934 theft
Photographic reproduction of the Ghent Altarpiece in the Vijd Chapel, 2014
From Kemperdick and Röẞler, 2015
After the 1934 theft
The reverse of a frame, showing the rabbet
The reverse of a cradeled panel, fixed in its frame with nails
The panel in purple, the frame in green, the nails in blue
The John the Baptist panel, front
The John the Baptist panel, reverse
Current framing system of the cradled panels of the Ghent Altarpiece
Photo composite suggesting how the panels were removed from the frames
Actual state image during most recent treatment
Arsène Goedertier
Recommended Reading
In addition to the readings of Episodes 18 and 19
A website about the 1934 theft full of information, photographs and documents; I can't vouch for it all being real
De Rechtvaardige Rechters . . . Spoorloos
https://web.archive.org/web/20221130140331/https://rechtvaardigerechters.be/
or
https://web.archive.org/web/20240229215545/https://rechtvaardigerechters.be/