Harry De Paepe

The Ghent Altarpiece 1432
Review of the Self Made Hero hardcover (March 3, 2020) translated by Albert Gomperts from the Dutch language original "Het Lam Gods. Bewonderd en gestolen" (February 5, 2020)

[3.5 = a compromise between a 4 for the research and a 3 for the minimal illustration]
The Ghent Altarpiece is considered one of the masterpieces of the history of art during its transition from the Medieval Age to the Renaissance. It was painted by the Van Eyck brothers, Hubert (c. 1385/90 - 1426) and Jan (c. 1390 - 1441) and is commonly credited to the latter, who completed the work after his brother's passing.

The Mystic Lamb: Admired and Stolen is a biography of the painting, rather than of the artists. It is a well researched overview of the often tumultuous history of the work, subject to various iconoclastic attacks, lootings, selling off in pieces, bungled and/or bizarre restorations (at one point the central lamb had 4 ears), sheltering from war, a final mysterious theft (one panel of which has never been found to the current day) and its present day situation in St. Bavo's Cathedral in Ghent, Belgium.

See illustration at https://selfmadehero.com/attachments/58e26107a706b4a7b78d6d32987475409b1f09ba/st...
A sample illustration page from "The Mystic Lamb: Admired and Stolen". Image sourced from the publisher SelfMadeHero.

The illustrations by Jan Van der Veken are not in graphic novel format. They are 13 (14 if you count the endsheets) one to two page accompanying illustrations to the text only. So this is more of an art history book with a few drawings included. The appendix section has photographic panels of the real-life Ghent Altarpiece artwork with accompanying text explanations.

See painting panel detail at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Retable_de_l%27Agneau_mystiq...
Detail of the main panel of the Ghent Altarpiece with the worship of the central Sacred Lamb. Image sourced from Wikipedia.

Trivia and Links
The Mystic Lamb is one of the current (as of mid-September 2022) 12 volumes in graphic novel publisher Self Made Hero's "Art Masters" series. Each book in the collection is a biography of a major internationally known artist or of a specific art work. You can view the selection of "Art Masters" books here.

The reason for my tag of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, is that he was commissioned to compose a work Für Jan van Eyck (2020) for the unveiling of the most recent restoration of the Ghent Altarpiece as part of the OMG! Van Eyck was Here Festival.… (mehr)