11 Facts About Ghent Altarpiece

Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, called the Ghent Altarpiece, is a large and complex 15th-century polyptych altarpiece in St Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium.

Ghent Altarpiece was opened on feast days, when the richness, colour and complexity of inner view was intended to contrast with the relative austerity of the outer panels.

Ghent Altarpiece's wears an open crown adorned with flowers and stars, and is dressed as a bride.

Ghent Altarpiece wears a green mantle over a cilice of camel-hair, his usual attribute.

Ghent Altarpiece looks towards the Almighty in the center panel, his hand raised in blessing, uttering the words most typically attributed to him, .

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The judges in the Ghent Altarpiece panel became the basis for a number of later portraits of the brothers, including that of Dominicus Lampsonius.

The Florentine annunciations have a number of iconographic similarities to the Ghent Altarpiece panels, including Gabriel's multi-colored wings, the upside down writing, the treatment of light beams, and the separation between angel and virgin by a thin architectural feature.

Ghent Altarpiece was titled Seigneur of Pamele and Ledeberg, and in a difficult and rebellious political climate, became one of the Duke of Burgundy Philip the Good's most trusted local councilmen.

Ghent Altarpiece prospered through the early 15th century, and a number of local councilors sought to establish a sense of independence from Burgundian rule.

Ghent Altarpiece was recorded as donor on an inscription on the original, now lost, frame.

The panels still in Ghent Altarpiece were damaged by fire in 1822, and the separately hinged Adam and Eve panels sent to a museum in Brussels.