Description

This film is a study of Jan van Eyck’s first named painting – the Ghent Altarpiece – known as the Mystic Lamb or the Adoration of the Lamb.

The triptych, made specifically for St. Bavo’s Cathedral in Ghent, is one of the most extraordinary paintings of the Northern Renaissance,

The Altar piece was originally opened only on feast days. It was begun by his elder brother Hubert, and after Hubert’s death in 1426, completed by Jan in 1432.

The closed wings explore the mystery of the Incarnation: the Archangel Gabriel announces the conception to the Virgin Mary.

The open wings disclose the birth of a new order: the Redemption of the World. The Lamb of God stands upon an altar in a flowering meadow, surrounded by kneeling angels, his blood streaming into a chalice. People from the whole of Christendom all through the ages come to worship him: Judges, Soldiers, Hermits and Pilgrims. On the upper register, Christ is seated in majesty, with Mary and John beside him, hymned by Angels. Adam and Eve – portrayed, most unusually, with beauty and tragic dignity – contemplate the whole scene.

This film aims to explore the remarkable symbolism of the Annunciation, the Lamb of God, and Christ and John and Mary and the Angels, as well as the significance of the human figures – the two donors Joos Vyd and Elisabeth Borluut, on the outside and Adam and Eve within – to try to reach an understanding of some of the many meanings of the painting. It is accompanied by music of the time in which van Eyck painted.

DVD PAL 65 min. approx. Region Free. 16:9