A Miracle of Survival: Jan Van Eyck Part 2.

 The majestic Ghent Altarpiece.

The van Eyck Ghent Altarpiece is acknowledged as one of the world’s greatest works of art; it was commissioned from Hubert van Eyck in the 1420s but largely unfinished at his death in 1642. The creation was passed to the sole care of his brother, Jan, who had been hugely involved in the project from the start, though he was described as ‘the second best in the art’ with Hubert, ‘greater than anyone.’ No painting by Hubert remains to support that claim but Jan’s work on the altarpiece, completed in 1432, virtually re-defined art and became immediately famous. His extraordinary creation portrayed the first realistic interior; the first genuine landscape; the first proper city-scape; the first natural nudes; the first authentic Renaissance portraits. The sophistication of his oil painting was stunning, using thin, almost transparent glazes to provide depth and astonishing degrees of light. Close inspection of the Altarpiece reveals van Eyck’s extraordinary skill in rendering tiny detail and it may be that at the beginning of his career in art, he developed this special miniaturist skill in his work illustrating manuscripts and Books of Hours.

 Iconoclasts demolishing a large wooden cross.

 Scene from the Great Iconoclasm 1566.

Michael Prodger suggests, in his New Statesman article [14-20 Feb. 2020 to which I am indebted], the price of being, almost immediately from its creation, the most famous painting in the world, meant that it became the most focused on, the most desired and the most stolen. In 1566, during Ghent’s ’Great Iconoclasm’, a Calvinist mob broke into St Bavo’s Cathedral in Ghent, to destroy it. The far-sighted Cathedral clergy had earlier winched it, panel by panel, [24 in all] into the bell tower out of sight of the iconoclasts. A further 18 years were to elapse before it was removed from its eventual hiding place in the Town Hall, and returned to its rightful position in the Cathedral.

 Holy Roman Emperor, Joseph 11.

Extraordinarily, the Holy Roman Emperor, Joseph 11, visited Ghent in 1781 and took exception to the nakedness of Adam and Eve who were removed elsewhere. In 1794, French revolutionary soldiers stole the Mystic Lamb panel and took it to Paris where it remained in the Louvre until 18 years after the Battle of Waterloo (1815). At about the same time, the Ghent diocese which was bankrupt, pawned the side panels for around £240, from where, unredeemed, they were bought by an English collector, Edward Solly, for £4000, who promptly re-sold them on to the King of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm 11. The panels were sliced in half, in Berlin, to enable simultaneous viewing and remained there until after WW1 when Germany was obliged to return them to Ghent under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. During the selected panels’ absence, in Sint Baafskathedral, the remaining panels managed to survive a fire in 1822 though one was split from side to side!

Fire in 1822.

During WW1, the Altarpiece was dismantled and bricked behind walls in two Ghent houses to hide it from the advancing Germans who were shown a letter stating that the treasure had been sent to England. However, in 1942 Hitler pounced and the Ghent Altarpiece was carried off to be hidden in the Altausee salt mine, protected with explosives against any attempt by the Allies to reclaim it. Hitler was accumulating great art for an intended prestigious Fuhrer Museum in Linz and he was determined that the advancing Soviets should not claim ‘his’ art collection. At the end of the war, it was repatriated though with the final flourish of extraordinary had weather which necessitated the rescuing aeroplane making an emergency landing in a small military outpost before eventually reaching home, first, briefly, in Brussels, and finally in Ghent, in its rightful place.

 Art treasures stored in the
 Altausee Salt Mine
during WW2.

 1934

Between the two World Wars, in 1934, thieves broke into the Cathedral and removed the bottom left segment showing John the Baptist on one side and the Last Judgement on the reverse. They left a note saying: 'Taken from Germany by the Treaty of Versailles’. They were seen leaving the Cathedral by another man robbing a nearby cheese shop! The thieves, meanwhile, sawed the panel in two and left the John the Baptist section in the left luggage area of Ghent station as proof of their possession while demanding one million Belgian francs for the return of the missing side of the panel. The ransom was never paid and police enquiries centred on a stockbroker, Arsene Goedertier who worked as a volunteer at the Cathedral. He never confessed but after his death, copies of the 12 ransom notes sent and a 13th, never sent, were found in his home. Sadly, the missing section has never been located despite police investigating a variety of rumours and suggestions over the last hundred years. However, this loss in no way demeans the majority of the original work of art and part of it is on view at the once-in-a-lifetime exhibition, An Optical Revolution at MSK Ghent after undergoing extensive and skilled renovation since 2012. The main panels remain on view in St Bavo’s Cathedral in Ghent.

Squashing The Sombrero

 Would you choose this man as national leader in an emergency?

 Only if This Man was the alternative.

Although not a fan of Boris, I often admire his penchant for colourful language. Yesterday, Friday 13th he described the UK Government’s plan of action for coping with Covid 19 as Squashing the Sombrero to explain intentions to flatten the curve of the graph of sufferers so that it might delay and spread out the rate of infections over several months to help the NHS cope with the volume of demand. The phrase, ‘herd immunity’ has been bandied about but I think that can only be achieved, normally, when [depending on the illness] between 60% and 95% of the population has been vaccinated. But as there is, as yet, no vaccine available, herd immunity can only be achieved, presumably, by letting the Coronavirus rampage through the population with an attendant frightening numbers of deaths, especially among the frail and elderly. Not sure if this assumption is totally correct but, if it right, then Boris & Co. are wrong, but then, I am grateful that I am not responsible for decision-making at Government level. Boris constantly refers to the medical advice he is following but there are political elements at work here too, although Boris only emphasised, ‘community’; ‘neighbours’ and ‘national togetherness’ and these are new words for Boris.

Prof. Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Adviser.

At Boris’s press conference, along with his medical and scientific advisers, they explained the intention to flatten the curve and gave the following information; schools would be closed as a last resort; major sporting events might be cancelled though this would not greatly affect the spread of the disease but could free up police for other duties; elderly to stay at home, eventually might be for up to 13-14 weeks; quarantine for a sufferer plus his family, for up to two weeks; mild symptoms will no longer be tested; lock-down does not work. By the following day, some of these decisions had been pre-empted by, for instance, the F.A. cancelling some notable events. The Government appeared to be slightly catching up though this was as nothing compared to the confused and chaotic leadership from the White House. America has mishandled

Sir Patrick Vallance, Chief Scientific Adviser.

Coronavirus testing partly because there is no adequate public health system with free access to testing in times of emergency. partly because there are insufficient testing kits. Undocumented immigrants may also be disinclined to seek tests in case ICE picks them up. But to have a President whose main eye is on the national economic health as it affects his likely re-election plans, and frequently is not shy of issuing false information about any topic, is frightening and confusing.

Belgium has taken the European lock-down route. All restaurants, cafes and bars are closed; non-food shops must be closed all weekends; museums and schools closed; boat rides no longer available; swimming pools closed; hotel kitchens and dining rooms closed; the Belfort closed. This morning, Sunday 15^th March, I called in at both Martin’s Hotels to discover one will be closing to consolidate the scant number of guests, and any group meeting on Hotel premises is banned.

The one bright spark this morning was to see that the Saturday market on ‘t Zand was open which must mean the Wednesday little market will follow. Great. Attendance at the market this morning, though, looked slight.

 Rozenhoedkaai, normally crammed with tourists; empty
when I walked through earlier.

No longer permitted to swim at the Crowne Plaza Hotel this morning I went for a lovely sunny canal-side walk for an hour and observed an almost surreal silence and emptiness at 9.00 a.m. throughout Brugge centre. It was lovely, calm, empty; one had opportunity and space to observe buildings, squares, Flemish gables and statues. It felt abnormal of course and it underlined the implicit message that without tourists, Brugge cannot survive long. Public servants like Town Hall staff, teachers etc will be paid I imagine, but what about the shop assistants, waiters, chefs, guides to the City? Surely there will be a global recession later this year. And nowhere to hide.

Yesterday I went to double-check at the hotel that the pool there is closed; it is closed but only to non-residents. I argued for Honorary Guest status as I have swum there most mornings for five years; denied! But Reception made me what was described as a great offer; one night’s stay with two swims and a breakfast, for 139 euros. I am already a member of the Fitness Club and pay a yearly subscription for that privilege, so 70 euros a swim extra seemed a little excessive! I went immediately to the hotel restaurant for a beer, which turned out to be My Last Beer there for some time; the waiter explained that all kitchen staff and waiters were laid off from Saturday evening. So there will be no breakfast [or other meals] for guests who will, perhaps, simply have to explore the city for a supermarket!! The waiter was despondent but hoping to receive perhaps 60% of his normal pay.

 Dr. Anthony Fauci, Trump's Truth-Teller;
Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases and Centre for Disease Control.

 Squashing the Sombrero. 

Als Ich Kan/ As I Can

 Angel Gabriel from the Ghent Altarpiece.

Jan Van Eyck’s motto, Als Ich Kan, As I can, implies that he always made the best possible effort for any task. His ‘best possible’ is superb as evidenced in The Optical Revolution, an exhibition of his work currently on view at the MSK, the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent which is focused on the restored side panels of the Ghent Altarpiece, The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, normally on view in St Bavo’s Cathedral. This major exhibition includes twelve of his circa 20 known paintings among the eighty works of art exhibited.

Self portrait.
Portrait of a Man in A Turban
1433.

I visited last week with six friends and we were collectively stunned by the magnificence of the exhibition itself and in particular by the luminous artistry of Van Eyck. He was not a miniaturist but his detailed and perfect works are achieved through the finest and most exquisitely wrought of detail. The several panels from the Mystic Lamb in the exhibition demonstrate the painstaking and extensive restoration work carried out since 2012. There is still one panel, stolen in 1934, unrecovered, but the whole altarpiece has had quite a chequered career over ownership and location, detailed in the following blog.

 Philip the Good.
Rogier van der Weyden.

The man himself has achieved a virtual immortality through his extraordinary artistic talent. Jan, born in Maaseik between 1385 and 1395, had a sister, Margaret, an artist, and two brothers, Hubert, a talented painter who obtained the commission for, and started to compose, the famous altarpiece, probably with Jan, circa 1420, which Jan took over when his brother died. He completed The Mystic Lamb in 1432 following which it was consecrated in St Bavo’s Cathedral in Ghent, on 6^th May, 1432.  There is evidence of many hands involved in the creation of the masterpiece,

 Woodcut of Hubert Van Eyck
1386?-1420
By Edme de Boulonois.
Mid 16th century

undoubtedly those of Jan's apprentices. Another artist brother, Lambert, active between 1431 and 1442, stepped in to lead Jan’s workshop when he died. Jan moved from restoring the Binnenhof Palace in the Hague after the death of his patron, John of Bavaria, to Brugge in 1425, becoming Court Painter and diplomat to Philip the Good. Nothing is known of Jan’s formal education though he had knowledge of Latin and used Greek and Hebrew alphabets in his inscriptions indicating he had been schooled in the Classics, rare for a painter. His early artistic education was provided by his gifted elder brother, Hubert, an artist of at least equal talent to that of Jan.

A generous Court salary from Philip freed Jan from seeking commissions and his technical and artistic ability developed, with his reputation, over the next decade. His innovative approaches towards the handling and manipulation of oil paint led to a subsequent myth, led by Vasari, that he had invented oil painting; his inspired speciality was actually that of layering thin glazes of oil paint over the surface which brought an astonishing realism to

Margareta van Eyck
by her husband.
1432.

both his religious art and secular portraiture. Considered revolutionary within his lifetime, Van Eyck’s designs and methods were heavily copied. His motto, Als Ich Kan, As I Can, first appeared in 1433 on Portrait of a Man in a Turban, perhaps an indication of his increasing self-confidence. The years 1434 to 1436 are generally considered to be when Jan was at the zenith of his powers when Madonna of Chancellor Rolin; Lucca Madonna, and Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele were produced. Van Eyck married Margaret around 1432; from the clothes she wore in her portrait, fashionable but not sumptuous, she is judged to have, perhaps, belonged to minor aristocracy though her family name has never been recorded. Their marriage suggests that with his increasing fame and his highly-regarded position at Court, came higher social status.

Isabella of Portugal and Philip the Good.
Diptych shows the couple later, in middle age.

A well-known incident transcribed in Wolfgang Stechow's Northern Renaissance Art: Sources and Documents highlights the respect Philip held for the artist. When the exchequer withheld payment from the artist, the duke rebuked this decision, writing: "We have heard that you do not readily verify certain of our letters granting life pension to our well-beloved equerry painter, Jan van Eyck, whereby he cannot be paid said pension; and for this reason, he will find it necessary to leave our service, which would cause us great displeasure, for we would retain him for certain great works with which we intend henceforth to occupy him and we would not find his like more to our taste, one so excellent in his art and science." Subsequently, van Eyck received his annual payments without fail.

Man in the Blue Chaperon with extensive
use of lapis lazuli.
Perhaps my favourite van Eyck.
c 1430.

Jan van Eyck undertook many ‘secret’ commissions for Philip, Duke of Burgundy, probably acting as envoy; he was paid many times his annual salary for these undertakings, one of which was to ‘certain distant and secret lands’, possibly to the Holy Land. The authentic depiction of Jerusalem in his workshop’s painting, The Three Marys at the Tomb, gives weight to this theory. He was an important part of a group sent by the Duke to Lisbon, Portugal to prepare the ground for the subsequent marriage of Philip to Isabella; Jan painted her portrait twice and sent one by land, one by sea, to Philip for his perusal. Both arrived but have been subsequently lost.

Jan van Eyck died on 9 July 1441 in Brugge where he had lived and worked since 1425 and he was buried first in the churchyard, a year later, in the Church itself, of St Donaas. The actual location of the grave was lost during the destruction by the French of the Cathedral in 1799. As a mark of respect, Philip made a one-off payment equal to a year’s salary, to Jan’s widow, Margareta. Jan van Eyck left many unfinished works for his workshop and post death, his reputation became evermore burnished.

 Diptych: The Annunciation.
From the Ghent Altarpiece.

A Noble Quarantine

 Eyam village, Derbyshire.

 William Mompesson, rector of
St Lawrence's Church, Eyam.

I used to live in Derbyshire, that beautiful county, for many years so how come, given the current hysteria about the Coronavirus, that I didn’t immediately remember Eyam, the plague village, famous in the seventeenth century for the truly remarkable way in which it decided to self-isolate as the current phrase has it, during a vicious return of the bubonic plague? It was an item by Peter Wilby in last week’s New Statesman referring to the famous Plague Village story which pulled me up instantly. The narrative of Eyam is inspiring.

 Plague scenes in stained glass,
St Lawrence's.

It began in the summer of 1665 when a bale of cloth arrived from London where the plague had already killed thousands. A tailor’s assistant, George Viccars, opened the damp bale and hung it in front of a fire to dry, unwittingly stirring the disease-ridden fleas contained within the parcel.. George was visiting Eyam to help make clothes for Wakes Week but became the first victim of the plague in Eyam. The pestilence swept through the community and between September and December 1665, 42 villagers had died; by Spring of 1666, many were about to flee to save their lives.

 During the plague, Sunday services were held  outside.
Any communal gathering was held in the open air.

 Mompesson's chair still remains in
Eyam church.

The recently-appointed (and unpopular) rector, William Mompesson decided that the village must be quarantinedHis predecessorThomas Stanley, had been summarily removed from his Church position, after refusing to acknowledge the Act of Uniformity (1662) which made it compulsory for churches to use the Book of Common Prayer introduced by Charles 11. He, and most of the village, were fervent supporters of Cromwell’s Puritan Government before the restoration of the monarchy. Stanley lived on the edge of the village more or less in exile but Mompesson realised that he needed the support of Stanley whom the villagers trusted. Together, they devised a remarkable plan: on 24 June, 1666 Mompesson told his assembled parishioners that the village must be closed with no one entering or leaving. The Earl of Devonshire who lived nearby at Chatsworth, had offered to send food and supplies if the villagers agreed to be quarantined. Mompesson said he would do everything in his power to help them and he and his wife would stay.

His wife’s diary recorded that the difficult decision William had asked of the village was helped by

 Catherine Mompesson's grave.

the fact that the popular Rev. Thomas Stanley stood by his side, in strong support of the quarantine. Though, she also recorded, that there were many misgivings over the wisdom of the plan which eventually received the reluctant support of the whole village. There is a nobility about the Eyam decision which resonates today. No one else, outside Eyam, in Derbyshire caught the plague; no one else died but the villagers knew the huge risks to which they were condemning themselves. By August 1666 there were five or six deaths a day. The weather was remarkably hot, the fleas were highly active and the pestilence spread unchecked through the village. In spite of this, no one broke the cordon sanitaire and whole families died. Elizabeth Hancock, for instance, buried six of her children and her husband, all of whom had died within eight days.

Mompesson’s letters record his appreciation of his young wife, Catherine, who had worked unstintingly among the victims and in so doing, had contracted the plague herself. On 22 August 1666 they went for a walk in the hills and she spoke of the sweet smell in the air. This sweet smell in the nostrils of the afflicted, was a common feature of the bubonic plague and she died the following morning, aged 27. Mompesson wrote of the smell of ‘sadness and death’ in the air saying, ‘I am a dying man.’ He did, in fact, survive. The worst was over and the number of cases fell in September and October and by November 1, 1666, the disease had gone. In just over a year, 260 of Eyam’s inhabitants from 76 families, had died. Historians estimate the size of the village before the plague, as between 350 and 500.

 Mompesson's well.

It seems to me that the self-imposed Eyam quarantine is of a different order from today’s cancellation of public events and those afflicted by the Coronavirus imposing a self-isolation. The inhabitants of the village sentenced themselves to remain in the highly-infected theatre of the disease with no defence for anyone against the plague swirling around them. Poor Mompesson remained unloved in Eyam, and left in 1669 to work in Eakring, Nottinghamshire but such was the reputation of the plague village that he was forced to live in a hut in Rufford Park until eventually, the villagers’ fears died away.

 St Lawrence's Church, Eyam, Derbyshire.

Post Script

Until a vaccine is discovered, tested and is ready to be administered, perhaps 9-12 months in the future] it is interesting to note that the only techniques available for limiting the spread of the epidemic today are essentially mediaeval. Isolation of the afflicted while waiting to see if the patient has the illness and can survive or not. No large groups of people assembling inside; groups outside to be avoided. 

Blog-ette on Anti-Semitism

 Aalst Carnival.#
I am unsure if inclusion here as illustration, compounds the crime.

This is a hasty addition to the normal blogs because I have found difficult to believe three examples of gross anti-Semitism displayed in, of all theatres, carnivals in three different countries. My interest, not to say, disbelief and repugnance, were aroused because the first instance I read about was in Aalst, a little town between Brugge and Ghent which looks like an ordinary Flemish small town. However, small though it is, its annual carnival is highly popular, attracting tens of thousands of visitors, and famous throughout Flanders. During last year’s three-day carnival, floats depicted Orthodox Jews with hooked noses standing on gold coins. Israel Katz, Israel’s Foreign Minister, then called for the authorities to ‘condemn and ban this hateful parade in Aalst.’ Belgium, as a Western democracy should be ashamed to allow such vitriolic antisemitic display, he tweeted. However, Belgium’s Prime Minister, Sophie Wilmes, described the parade as an ‘internal affair.’ But Unesco removed the Aalst carnival from its list of ‘intangible cultural heritage’ saying the festival had been guilty of ‘recurring repetition of racist and anti-semitic representations.’ Unbelievably, following that serious censure, the offence was repeated in the carnival from February 23-26 this year by the unrepentant organisers who dismissed criticisms as ‘politically correct censorship’. The town’s mayor, Christoph D’Haese, said, ‘Here we laugh at everything, …..Islam, Judaism and Catholicism.’ Commission spokesman, Adalbert Jahnz, said that the anti-Semitism on display in the Aalst carnival was incompatible with the values and principles on which the E.U. was founded.

 Carnaval de Campo de Criptana.

Meanwhile, a huge parade in the Carnaval de Campo de Criptana, near Madrid, was apparently intended to commemorate those who died in the Holocaust. However, the Israeli Government and the Auschwitz Museum both accused the Spanish carnival of vilely and repugnantly trivialising the Holocaust after a troupe danced through the streets dressed as Nazi officers and concentration camp prisoners, accompanied by a float bearing a menorah and two crematorium chimneys. The Auschwitz museum tweeted: ‘Hard to describe: memory upside-down, far beyond vulgar kitsch, without any relevance, without reflection & respect.’ The town council of Campo de Crispana said that permission for the act had been granted on the understanding that it would honour the dead of the Holocaust. The mayor of Campo de Criptana agreed that it had not been a carnival-type theme and suggested that it would not happen again.

Sao Paulo.

It seems that carnivals all take place in February; at the same time as those in Aalst and Campo de Crispana came the world-famous Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, one of the world’s largest multi-day celebrations. This year, 100 dancers of the Vai-Vai Samba School wore costumes featuring swastikas on their backs, with a thin black line, unseen from a distance, scored through the swastikas. Israel Katz of the Sao Paulo Jewish Federation said, ‘To us Jews, it’s always shocking to see a swastika but to non-Jewish eyes, it is an historical fact.’ He gave his approval to the Vai-Vai costumes which had been used in 1999 when they were slammed by Jewish groups.

I think that the E.U. has laws against a variety of hate crimes based on religion, sex, age, race and wonder if these would apply to what were claimed to be light-hearted items in local carnivals. I feel pretty certain that such anti-Semitic presentations in public entertainments, could not happen in the

 Auschwitz, one of the chain of concentration camps
during the Holocaust where millions of Jews were
killed for their faith. 

UK because of anti-discrimination laws but I am not a lawyer. And there have been prolonged accusations against the British Labour Party over anti-Semitism in its ranks. But I remain shocked and saddened to see the carnival examples and also amazed that many of the Flemish to whom I have mentioned these carnivals’ anti-Semitism, have just demurred that it is all light-hearted, not serious, just a bit of fun. It is, in fact, ugly and dangerous to openly portray racist and anti-Semitic representations in this way, in the name of entertainment. Small wonder that Jews in Europe are reportedly feeling progressively unsafe and one reads that there has been an upsurge in anti-Semitism world-wide.

 Jewish girls identified by compulsory yellow stars.

Oostende in the Wind.

 The Pulpit. Leon Spilliaert

 Drawing by James Ensor

 De Mangerie, Oostende.

A lovely day out with friend to Oostende to celebrate his birthday. Hopefully-judicious checking on the Internet produced a booking at De Mangerie on the Albert 1 Promenade and the promise of its presence in the list of Top Ten Fish Restaurants in town, lived well up to expectations!! The meal was both wonderfully tasty and aesthetically beautiful and the service, exceptional. I thought it

extraordinary also, that I had an email this morning asking me to rate our welcome, the food and the service, in retrospect. De Mangerie, Oostende, definitely earns a second visit!

 Albert 1 Promenade, Oostende.

This was my fourth or fifth trip to Oostende in as many years and I have never enjoyed it. Always grey and gloomy; generally cold and misty; often with showers or continuous rain. Yesterday, in February, it was cold with a very strong wind but the sun shone, the sea glistened immense and distant, and I could understand why people might go there for a holiday. As in Brugge, out-of-season roadworks and re-laying of cables and pipes seemed everywhere, but even so, Lots of Room along the Promenade for games and fish stalls, couples trying to stroll, leaning against the wind, and children running in circles. It was a photo opportunity of almost summer proportions!

 Interior. James Ensor

After lunch, to the Mu-zee, the local Museum of Modern Art, Oostende’s own MOMA. I had never seen it before and was delighted with the white interior on different levels displaying a number of pictures by Leon Spilliaert, one of the local Masters, and James Ensor, already known and loved in this parish. Coincidentally, there is a Leon Spilliaert exhibition on now in the Royal Academy, a place I love and of which I was a member for countless years. I had never known that Spilliaert was virtually a local boy in Flanders. It is an excellent exhibition in the Mu-zee and I shall keep note of further exhibitions there. I really should explore more of Flanders!

 Self-portrait, Leon Splliaert, 1881-1946

 The Rower. Leon Spilliaert



"To me, the only thing that counts is my individuality; it is everything
to me; I am not so certain that all the other things exist. It is like a
phantasmagoria, when I view the life that goes on outside myself, it
is often with abundant fantasy."
Leon Spilliaert. 1925









"The mask loomed large in the work of Ensor from 1888 onwards. It became
the hallmark of his work and his most notable contribution to modern art
is the integration of carnivalesque iconography into his oeuvre.. In his work,
the mask became an instrument by which to expose human nature."

                   

 James Ensor 1860-1949.
by Rik Wouters.

 

James Ensor; Self-portrait with masks.
1899.