The Ghent Altarpiece

The catastrophic Restoration of phase 2
Request to Move from ‘Invasive Scalpel Restoration’ towards ‘Respectful Conservation’

Helene Verougstraete, Prof. Em. Faculty Arts and Letters, UCLouvain & KULeuven

©helene verougstraete

©KIK-IRPA. The Adoration of the Lamb after restoration phase 2.

Illustrations are from the website closertovaneyck

https://closertovaneyck.kikirpa.be/ghentaltarpiece/#home/sub=copyright

The author:

Hélène Verougstraete, °1944. (1968): studies in Art History and Archeology at the catholic University of Louvain (UCLouvain). Practice of drawing and painting. 1967: 4-month scolarship at the Academy of Fine Arts of Prague.
1968-69: training in restoration of paintings and sculptures at the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA).
1987: phD in Art History, on frames and supports in Southern Netherlandish Painting in 15th- and 16th- centuries. Published in 1989.
1972 : member of the Laboratoire d’étude des œuvres d’art par les méthodes scientifiques (Labart), dir. Prof. Roger Van Schoute (RVS).
1992-2009 : Professor at the UCLouvain and direction of the Laboratoire d’étude des œuvres d’art par les méthodes scientifiques. 1998: teaching Technologie der beeldende kunsten : laboratoriumonderzoek in the catholic University of Leuven (KULeuven).

Colloques and exhibitions:
• 1975- 2009 : organization by the Labart of the Colloques pour l’étude du dessin sous-jacent et de la technologie dans la peinture (I – XVI) with publication of Actes.

• In 2004: organization by the Labart of the exhibition Fake not Fake at the Groeningemuseum, Bruges, inspired by the archives of Jef Van der Veken, (1872-1964). Catalogue : H. Verougstraete, R. Van Schoute, T.-H. Borchert, J. Couvert, E. Bruyns et R. Pieters, Fake not Fake. Restaurateurs ou faussaires des Primitifs Flamands (Het verhaal van de restauratie van de Vlaamse Primitieven), Groeninge Museum, Bruges, 2004.

Bruegel :
• 1993: the iconography of The Triumph of Death (Madrid, Prado). H.V et RVS, The Triumph of Death by Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Pieter Breughel the Younger. Intellegetur plus semper quam pingitur dans Le dessin sous-jacent dans la peinture, Colloque IX, 1993, p. 213-240.
• Discovery of a signature and a date “BRUE… M.D.LVII” [Bruegel the Elder 1557] on a tondo with a morality: Pig in the pigsty! R. Van Schoute and H. Verougstraete, A painted wooden roundel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Burlington Magazine, March 2000, p.140-146.

Frames and supports in 15th- and 16th- Century Southern Netherlandish Painting
• H.V., Frames and Supports in 15th- and 16th-Century Southern Netherlandish Painting, Brussels, with the help of the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA) and the support of the Getty Foundation, Panel Painting Initiative, Brussels, 2015. On-line e-book 712 p.
https://www.kikirpa.be/en/publications/frames-and-supports

Van Eyck :
• H.V., La présentation de l’Agneau Mystique dans la chapelle Vijd. Le rapprochement progressif de deux retables, in Van Eyck Studies. Papers presented at the Eighteenth Symposium for the Study of Underdrawing and Technology in Painting, Brussels (2012), Paris-Leuven-Bristol, 2017, pp. 157-177.
• H.V., The [frames of the] Ghent Altarpiece, in Frames and Supports …, 2015, p. 187-235.
https://www.kikirpa.be/en/publications/frames-and-supports
• H.V. and W. Verbaal, Een raadsel op het Lam Gods eindelijk opgelost. Het retabel van Jan voor †Lubrect, Openbaar Kunstbezit in Vlaanderen (OKV), 2021, 40 p.
• H.V. and W. Verbaal, The Ghent Altarpiece and the Inscription on the Cloths of Honour behind Mary and John the Baptist, 2021, 44 p. On-line.
https://www.sintbaafskathedraal.be/images/files/inscription.pdf
https://www.sintbaafskathedraal.be/nl/geschiedenis/lam-gods/

Bibliography:

• Bart Fransen and Cyriel Stroo (dir. by), The Ghent Altarpiece. Research and Conservation of the Exterior. Contributions to the Study of the Flemish Primitives, Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage, Brussels, 2020.
• http://data.closertovaneyck.be/ec2/data/LamGods_Behandeling_Fase2.pdf).
• Kathleen Froyen and Hélène Dubois (eds.), Conservatie- en restauratiebehandeling van het Lam Gods veelluik: fase 2: het onderregister van het open altaarstuk (2016-2019), Brussel, KIK-IRPA, april 2020. Online in juli 2020 (in het Nederlands en in het Engels).
• Griet Steyaert, Marie Postec, Jana Sanyova, Hélène Dubois et al., The Ghent Altarpiece. Research and Conservation of the Interior. The Lower Register. Contributions to the Study of the Flemish Primitives, Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage, Brussels, 2021.