Column: A Thousand Words
The Ghent Altarpiece, Part II
Hubert & Jan van Eyck
by Mary Elizabeth Podles
In the last issue, we looked at the exterior of the Ghent Altarpiece; in this issue, we open the doors. Accepting the theory that the panels were originally housed in a far more elaborate frame, and could be opened in different ways on different occasions, we will begin by unfolding the top tier and leave the lower doors shut for now.
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Mary Elizabeth Podles is the retired curator of Renaissance and Baroque art at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. She and her husband Leon, a Touchstone senior editor, have six children and live in Baltimore, Maryland.
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