The Ghent Altarpiece: exploring the van Eycks’ masterpiece
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Begins: Thursday 16 July 2020
Until: Thursday 30 July 2020
(11am-12pm) - Lecturer: Dr Paula Nuttall
Please note that this event will now be presented online in one-hour sessions over three weeks. It will be delivered via Zoom and you will need to be familiar with this app in order to participate – we do not have the capacity to provide any back-up or advice on the use of Zoom. We recommend that you log on to Zoom 15 minutes before the start time of the event even if you are familiar with the app since the process can take some time if a lot of participants are logging on at the same time. You will receive an email the day before the lecture with details of how to join the event. If you do not receive it please check your spam/junk mail folder.
Programme
Completed in 1432, the Ghent Altarpiece by Jan and Hubert van Eyck (the focus of the acclaimed exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent that was forced to close in March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic) is a milestone in the history of art, the first datable work to be painted in the dazzlingly virtuosic, naturalistic style of the Netherlandish ars nova. The three lectures will look at the Altarpiece in depth, interrogating the problem of its authorship and original appearance, unpacking its imagery and meaning, recounting its later history, and exploring some of the discoveries to have emerged during its recent restoration.
Lectures
The three lectures that comprise the study day are couched in terms of a series of questions about the Altarpiece, to which we shall explore the answers.
Thursday 16 July 2020, 11am-12pm
Who painted the Ghent Altarpiece? Hubert and Jan van Eyck, and other problems.
Thursday 23 July, 2020, 11am-12pm
What does it mean? Interpreting the Ghent Altarpiece.
Thursday 30 July 2020, 11am-12pm
What happened to the Ghent Altarpiece? The afterlife and restoration of a masterpiece.
Lecturer
Dr Paula Nuttall wrote her doctoral thesis on the reception of Netherlandish painting in fifteenth-century Florence. She is a specialist in artistic relations between Italy and Northern Europe. Her acclaimed book is From Flanders to Florence: The Impact of Netherlandish Painting, 1400-1500 (Yale University Press, 2004). Paula is Director of the V&A Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Year Course. She lectures for a range of other UK institutions and societies.