Coming to the light, the Ghent Altarpiece restoration

Infographic project to explain Hubert and Jan van Eyck’s Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, also known as the Ghent Altarpiece.

Diagram showing the restoration process of the Ghent Altarpiece, including stages like cleaning dust, removing varnishes, filling cracks, and applying varnish layers, with illustrations of the panels before and after restoration, and a photo of the final restored Lamb of God sculpture.

This backpage print was published in the South China Morning Post in September 2021. Participate in this production, Eduardo Baptista, Darren Long, and Dennis Wong, for the online version.

A large, detailed tree with a person standing underneath it, holding a stick and looking up at the foliage.

Oak was the artist's wood of choice because of its hardness and versatility. The central altarpiece panel, known as the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, is more than 30cm long, so a tree with a wide trunk was needed. Van Eyck chose a 400-year-old Baltic oak.

A few views of the print paper.

A newspaper page from the South China Morning Post with an article titled "Coming to the light" about restoring a painted altar piece depicting the Mystic Lamb. The page contains diagrams, progress photos, and a detailed illustration of the restoration process, including the original artwork, paint layers, and retouching stages. There are also small images showing the altarpiece before and after restoration, a world map highlighting the artist's locations, and a central illustration of a large tree with labels describing the restoration steps.
A newspaper page describing the restoration process of the Ghent Altarpiece, featuring illustrations of tree construction, painting techniques, and stages of restoration, along with images of the original artwork and colored paint samples.
Illustration of the Ghent Altarpiece, a large religious artwork, showing a tree, artists painting on easels, and details about oil painting techniques and materials such as egg yolks, casein, pigment, and turpentine.
Page from a publication showing images and descriptions of the Ghent Altarpiece, a famous religious painting, including a photograph of the panels, maps of its location in Belgium, and illustrations of restoration process.
An artist in historical attire paints on a large canvas in an artist's studio. The studio features a window with blue curtains and cityscape view, with various art supplies, including brushes and paint jars, on nearby tables.

Illustration for the digital version, click on the image to access the original link at South China Morning Post.

Process video for one of the main illustrations depicting the Baltic’s oak tree used as a base for the painting.

An artistic illustration of a classical sculpture of a woman's head with a modern human face, with a hand holding a paintbrush near her temple.

Thanks for the visit!

All the illustrations and graphics shown in this link are under ©South China Morning Post.

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