I offer here a perfect example...but let me preface my comments by stressing that I am, by no stretch of anyone’s imagination, an art expert. I’m not even an amateur student of the fine arts. I’m just another among the hoi polloi who knows what he likes when it comes to art.
The story begins in Ghent, Belgium back in the early 15th century when an artist, Hubert van Eyck, was commissioned to create an altarpiece for St. Bavo’s Cathedral. Although Hubert designed and began painting the elaborate piece, he died before finishing the work. His brother, Jan, continued the work which took over 12 years to complete. To say the altarpiece is iconic would be a gross understatement. It is universally considered to be one of the world’s great artistic masterpieces. I’ve included a photo of the twelve interior panels of the altarpiece below. Because the altarpiece is hinged, there’s also an outer group of panels, but our story is focused on the larger, more elaborate paintings of the interior panels depicted here. (Click image to see larger version.)
The top seven panels depict the heavenly realm, centered on Christ the King, with the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist at His side. They in turn are flanked by angelic choirs and finally by Adam and Eve, who in their nakedness look very guilty indeed.
At the center of the lower five panels is the largest painting, the Adoration of the Lamb, depicting Jesus as the Lamb of God shedding His blood into the chalice on the altar. He is surrounded and worshipped by a large collection of people representing various sectors of humanity: sinners, saints, clergy, soldiers, royals, etc. The below image shows the lamb on the altar.
Some years ago it was decided to perform a complete restoration of the altarpiece. (The above close-up of the Lamb is post-restoration.) The three-phased restoration began in 2002 and was partially completed earlier this year. Phase three of the restoration will commence soon. As always happens with art restorations, some “experts” were appalled by the results. And that certainly happened with the Ghent Altarpiece restoration. Although the complaints were wide-ranging, much of the criticism focused on the figure of the Lamb of God in the large, central, lower panel. I’ve included below a close-up photo comparing the before and after look of the Lamb. (Click on the image to enlarge.)
The difference between the two is striking. On the left, we have the “before” version, a rather natural, placid looking, very sheep-like face. The contrast between it and the restored version is obvious. The restored Lamb of God presents us with an almost human face — the penetrating look in the eyes, the mouth with its full lips, the overall expression. Some of the harshest of the critics have called it “cartoonish” and complained that the restorers actually repainted the face, changing it from its original to this oddly anthropomorphic version.
Well, guess what? It seems the only “repainting” took place long ago, and the restorers actually got it right. The scientific evidence — and I won’t bore you (or myself) with the details of how they do these things — shows that the painting had undergone a number of earlier “restorations” that really were over-paintings designed to alter the face of the Lamb. Helene Dubois, head of the restoration project, suggested that the original Lamb, with its nearly human face, and its penetrating, almost accusatory stare, might have been too much for those of later generations who encountered its expression every day. It was, therefore, over-painted to reflect more closely the “tastes” of later times. As the restoration progressed, the restorers were able to remove the successive over-paintings and uncover the original seen on the right above. According to the conservators, over 70% of the original panels were hidden or altered in a 1550 over-painting; and that’s 125 years after the van Eyck brothers’ original.
I found this truly amazing. We think of photoshopping — the alteration of an image in a way that intentionally distorts reality — as a very modern, digital technique to make Aunt Alice look a little younger, a bit thinner than she really is. But here we see the same process applied to one of the world’s great artistic masterpieces by those who apparently thought the Lamb of God should be softened so He’d look more sheep-like, less human, and certainly less sacrificial. I guess "fake news" is nothing new.
Why this was done we can only guess. Because of the timing, I suspect it’s related to the Reformation. The statues and other artwork of several of Ghent's Catholic churches were defaced or destroyed during those days, so perhaps the Lamb on the altar was perceived as simply too Catholic to be left as is. Repainting it as more sheep-like would make it more symbolic and less sacramental, less Eucharistic. The altarpiece may have been spared more serious damage because it was so highly regarded, so beautiful, and a valued part of Belgian heritage. But that's just my uneducated view and I may well be totally wrong.
Anyway, the altarpiece is being restored to its original state, giving us a far more accurate depiction of the faith of Belgians in 1425.
