60 Route 6. GHENT. Inner Town:

here see them are the originals, the missing wings (seep. 115) being
replaced by copies with variations of the 16th and 19th centuries.
Best light in the morning.

‘In the centre of the altar-piece, and on a panel which overtops all
the others, the noble and dignified figure of Christ sits enthroned in the
prime of manhood with a short black beard, a broad forehead, and black
eyes. On his head is the white tiara, ornamented with a profusion of
diamonds, pearls, and amethysts. Two dark lappets fall on either side
of the grave and youthful face. The throne of black damask is em-
broidered with gold; the tiara relieved on a golden ground covered with
inscriptions in semicircular lines. Christ ho n his left hand a sceptre
of splendid workmanship, and with two fingers of his right he gives his
blessing to the world. The gorgeous red mantle which completely
enshrouds his form is fastened at the breast by a large jewelled brooch.
The mantle itself is bordered with a double row of pearls and amethysts.
The feet rest on a golden pedestal, carpeted with black, and on the dark
ground, which is cut into perspective squares by lines of gold, lies a
richly-jewelled open-worked crown, emblematic of martyrdom. This
figure of the Redeemer is grandly imposing; the mantle, though laden
with precious stones, in obedience to a somewhat literal interpretation
of Scripture, falls from the shoulders and over the knee to the feet in
ample and simple folds. The colour of the flesh is powerful, brown,
and glowing, and full of vigour, that of the vestments strong and rich.
The hands are well drawn, perhaps a little contracted in the muscles,
but still of startling realism. — On the right of Christ the Virgin sits
in her traditional robe of blue; her long fair hair, bound to the forehead
by a diadem, flowing in waves down her shoulders. With most graceful
hands she holds a book, and pensively Jooks with a placid and untroubled
eye into space. On the left of the Eternal, St. John the Baptist rests,
long-haired and bearded, austere in expression, splendid in form, and
covered with a broad, flowing, green drapery. On the spectator’s right
of St. John the Baptist, St. Cecilia, in a black brocade, plays on an
oaken organ supported by three or four angels with viols or harps. On
the left of the Virgin a similar but less beautiful group of singing
choristers standing in front of an oaken desk, the foremost of them dressed
in rich and heayy red brocade. (Van Mander declares that the an

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

  

who sing are so artfully done that we mark the difference of keys
in which their voices are pitched.) — On the spectators right of St.
Cecilia once stood the naked figure of Eve, now removed to the Brussels
museum — a figure upon which the painter seems to have concentrated

all his knowledge of perspective as applied to the human form and its
anatomical development. Counterpart to Eve, and once on the left side
of the picture, Adam is equally remarkable for correctness of proportion
and natural realism. Here again the master’s science in optical perspective
is conspicuous, and the height of the figure above the eye is fitly con-
sidered. (Above the figures of Adam and Eve are miniature groups of
the sacrifices of Cain and Abel and the death of Abel.).

‘Christ, by his position, presides over the sacrifice of the Lamb as
represented in the lower panels of the shrine. The scene of the sacrifice
is laid in a landscape formed of green hills receding in varied and
pleasing lines from the foreground to the extreme distance. A Flemish
city, meant, no doubt, to represent Jerusalem, is visible chiefly in the
background to the right; but churches and monasteries, built in the
style of the early edifices of the Netherlands and Rhine country, boldly
raise their domes and towers above every part of the horizon, and are
sharply defined on a sky Wf pale grey gradually merging into a deeper
hue. The trees, which occupy the middle ground, are not of high growth,
nor are they very different in colour from the undulating meadows in
which they stand. They are interspersed here and there with cypresses,
and on the left is a small date-palm. The centre of the picture is all
meadow and green slope, from, a foreground strewed with daisies and
dandelions to the distant blue hills.’