The late discovery of Hubert’s work
It was common knowledge that Hubert had started the Altarpiece. A famous inscription (a quatrain: four verses) painted on its frames tells that Hubert began and that after his death [in 1426] his brother Jan took over and completed the work in 1432. It is not known when Hubert had started, nor was it known what part of the Altarpiece he had worked on. In how far he conceived the masterpiece is also unknown. When did he stop due to health reasons? From Master Hubert to Master Jan, the painting took many years to be completed. This can explain why we see damage between the two periods, and it helps to understand the complex building up of layers. The structure of a painting at that time, if done by one single Master, consists in superimposing several layers, more or less transparent. When an artist superimposes his version on another painter’s painting, it becomes even more complicated. A transparent layer (generally a varnish) can isolate two successive paintings, but a transparent layer or a varnish can sit between two original layers. This situation has been described in the portrait of Margareta Van Eyck, in the Groeningemuseum in Bruges. This draws the attention to the danger of relying on a varnish to separate layers. The danger is that the layer above the varnish is considered by the restorer merely as an ‘overpainting’. To complicate the matter even more, let us remind ourselves that numerous repairs had taken place on the Ghent Altarpiece, some already in very early times. This gives an idea of the challenges that the restorers of the Ghent Altarpiece had to confront.
As mentioned before, in phase 2 the restorers were convinced that the under layer was the ‘original layer’ (Jan’s’), and the upper layer a “16th-century overpainting…constituting a continuous stratigraphic pictural layer.” They scraped the upper layer off, inspired by the success of the previous team in phase 1.
But the Adoration was a totally different case. During the restoration, Hubert’s name seems to have been forgotten by the restorers. Neither in meetings, nor in reports is Hubert’s name mentioned (closertovaneyck. Reports and Resources, 2020).
The discovery of Hubert’s hand by the restorers came only after the restoration, too late. What led the restorers to uncover the hand of Hubert in the additional year they received for study, are essentially faces of lesser quality and a double meadow (Jan’s meadow covering Hubert’s meadow), details that were always visible to the naked eye. Had they carried out a careful preliminary examination, the restorers could have seen them before starting the restoration. Obviously, the lesser heads were never overpainted. The restorers could also have seen in a preliminary examination that the meadow was double, since in 1950 the restorer Albert Philippot had scraped off some surface with the scalpel, laying bare zones of the underlying meadow. Besides, art historians had, in the past, described grass under the fountain.
The layer laid bare displays some old damage and repairs. We can thus infer that even before Jan started to work, the painting had sustained some damage. We are uncertain of the length of time that elapsed between Hubert abandoning his work due to failing health, and Jan starting his. That could have been a few years, allowing for layers of varnish, for damage due to neglect of an unfinished altarpiece, or damage from candles burning on an altar…Not only old damage was to be seen in the newly uncovered layer, but new damage is also visible as well: the scalpel contributed to the damage and more or less half of the surface needed retouching.
Because of its central position in the Altarpiece, the Adoration was probably the place where Hubert had started. Apparently, he was quite far advanced in his project, but due to his failing health, he probably left his work unfinished. We believe Jan kept the overall composition of the Adoration. It seems he corrected and largely overpainted the weak job of his brother. Thus, we have here, in the Adoration, and apparently here alone in the whole Altarpiece, two ‘original’ paint layers: the one by Jan on top of Hubert’s. This makes the Adoration so different from all other panels.
The restorers mention in their publication other zones that seem to point to Hubert’s paternity because they were not overpainted: mainly the two huge complexes of buildings, to the left and to the right. Let us add that on the cityscape to the left, numerous pentimenti and added fine detail seem to be additions by Jan, on Hubert’s underlying project.
Fig.: faces of different quality. left: Hubert. Right: Jan
Fig.: detail with the double meadow. In 1950-51, Albert Philippot had done some work in that area. He probably laid bare elements of an underlying meadow.
