Rehearsal for an altarpiece
2023
11 collages
mounted
on paper
(one work)
each mounted on
45 x 55 cm
Luuk Wilmering
The lower central panel of the Ghent Altarpiece by the Van Eyck brothers depicts the tower of Utrecht Cathedral. The Dom Tower is located just to the left of centre on the horizon.
A few years ago, I found the portfolio Der Genter Altaar der Brüder van Eyck, containing large loose black-and-white reproductions of the Ghent Altarpiece. The publication is by Max J. Friedländer and was published by Kurt Wolff Verlag München in 1920. Not long after, I came across another portfolio: The Dom of Utrecht, published by C.H.E. Breijer (A. Oosthoek) in Utrecht in 1906, with large loose black-and-white photo reproductions of the interior and exterior of the Dom Church.
These two publications had to be brought together. Because I could immediately imagine how Hubert and Jan Van Eyck's models rehearsed between 1424 (the year of Joost Vijd's commission) and 1432 (the year of completion) in the Dom Church in Utrecht for the poses they had to assume and in which they are now immortalised on this famous altar.
