What we ask for
- To set a STOP to the restoration of phase 3, until the appropriate measures are taken.
- A thorough examination of every panel shall be carried out and made available to the authorities and experts and the technical documents should also be made available to them. Their advice should be requested. A diagram with a clear mapping of the extent of damage and overpaints must be included in the information. The dating of overpaints should be scientifically justified when possible.
NB. The phase 2 restorers, now working on phase 3, justified the scraping off on the upper quarter of the Adoration by dating the ‘overpaint’ to the 16th century (excluding hereby any paternity to the Van Eycks). What method was used to differentiate a 15th- from a 16th- century overpaint?
They seem to be repeating the same method in phase 3, when asking to scrape off an overpaint they date to the ‘19th-century because its chrome content. Chrome was indeed introduced in the 19th- century painter’s pallet, but the overpainting might as well be 20th- century, and therefore painted by Albert Philippot. Whatever Philippot did to the Mystic Lamb, his retouches are of a better quality than those we can expect today
- Stop the ‘invasive scalpel restoration’ and favor a ‘cautious conservation’. Giving the preference to maintaining old restorations if well preserved and well done, especially in the wax-brocades. Exceptions can be made for limited and discolored repairs: the question should be discussed with the Committees.
- The team of restorers should be replaced, and those who contributed to the irreversible damage to the Adoration as a result of professional shortcomings should no longer be working on the Altarpiece. The question arises also for the experts (probably chosen by the KIK-IRPA), whether they should continue with the supervision, if they did not notice any damage in phase 2 and if they do not concede that damage happened. They do not protect the Ghent Altarpiece against damage.
Sadly, the reputation of the world-famous Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA)
has been put into jeopardy by a few, while the vast majority at that Institute do outstanding work, also among those who participated in this restoration.
In the future, a sort of ‘repair’ should be envisioned. The river should be removed because it has nothing to do with the Ghent Altarpiece. Rare specialists/technicians are capable of making a copy ‘à l’identique’ of a painting by Jan Van Eyck. Maybe they could repaint the Cortewalle castle, the blue landscape, the trees and bushes, the architecture?
Louvain-la-Neuve, March 2024
