The Mystic Lamb
12 panels in astonishing restored colour โ history's most stolen painting.
Michael Kranewitter โ CC BY-SA 3.0 nl ยท Gargarapalvin โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Gargarapalvin โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Gargarapalvin โ CC BY-SA 4.0
In 1934 the "Just Judges" and "John the Baptist" panels were stolen from the cathedral; the second was returned, and the thief demanded a ransom and died without revealing the first's hiding place โ still missing despite decades of searching, replaced by a copy. The whole altarpiece was taken by Napoleon and then the Nazis (rescued from a salt mine, as in "The Monuments Men"). A story worthy of the AR that tells it.
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St Bavo's Cathedral is home to Belgium's most famous painting and one of the most important in art history: "The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb" (the Ghent Altarpiece) by the brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck (1432) โ twelve panels in revolutionary oil colours of uncanny precision, stolen, dismembered and hidden more than any other artwork (Napoleon, the Nazis in a salt mine, and the "Just Judges" panel missing since 1934 and never found). Fully restored (2012โ2020), its astonishing colours are back. The altarpiece is shown in a dedicated chapel, preceded by the "visitor centre" in the crypt with augmented-reality technology: glasses that tell the story of the painting and cathedral across the centuries among the Romanesque crypt walls โ an exceptional experience. The cathedral itself is imposing Gothic (thirteenth to sixteenth century) with an 89-metre tower, a rococo pulpit, and Rubens' "St Bavo Entering the Monastery". Cathedral entry is free; the altarpiece and visitor centre are ticketed. Ghent's spiritual and artistic heart โ not to be missed on any account.
12 panels in astonishing restored colour โ history's most stolen painting.
Glasses telling the painting's story among Romanesque walls.
"St Bavo Entering" and a carved rococo pulpit.
Sint-Baafsplein, 9000 Ghent