That's a closeup of the central figure in the Ghent Altarpiece, before and after restoration. The great masterpiece by Hubert and Jan Van Eyck (1432) had been painted over in the 16th century, and people had gotten used to the eyes way off to the side. But the image on the right puts the eyes back where Hu and Jan had them.
I'm reading "Ghent Altarpiece: Lamb's 'alarmingly humanoid' face surprises art world" (BBC). Smithsonian Magazine is quoted saying "These features are 'eye-catching, if not alarmingly anthropomorphic.'" There's also a lot of reaction in social media.
The new image is the original painting, with layers of "overpaint" removed. The Belgium's Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (RICH) defends its work:
The Van Eyck brothers chose to "represent the Lamb of God with human-like staring eyes", which was a common style in the Middle Ages, it said. "The choice for removing the overpaint was carefully weighed out, and it was fully supported by all involved," the institute said. "The results of the restoration have been praised by experts, the public and St Bavo's Cathedral."Here's the Wikipedia article "Lamb of God":
Lamb of God ... is a title for Jesus that appears in the Gospel of John. It appears at John 1:29, where John the Baptist sees Jesus and exclaims, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."...If you want to talk about what's "alarmingly anthropomorphic," begin with Jesus.
The Lamb imagery in Revelation is counterintuitive. In Rev. 5:5, John hears from an elder about the lion of Judah who conquers, but in 5:6, what he sees is a lamb....
[I]n 375 Saint Augustine wrote: "Why a lamb in his passion? Because he underwent death without being guilty of any iniquity. Why a lion in his passion? Because in being slain, he slew death. Why a lamb in his resurrection? Because his innocence is everlasting. Why a lion in his resurrection? Because everlasting also is his might."
ADDED: The oldest usage of the word "anthropomorphic" is about God. It "ascribes human form, character, or attributes to God or a god" (OED). The first appearance of the word is this:
1802 S. T. Coleridge Coll. Lett. (1956) II. 893 Even the worship of one God becomes Idolatry..when instead of the Eternal & Omnipresent..we set up a distinct Jehovah tricked out in the anthropomorphic Attributes of Time & Successive Thoughts—& think of him as a Person.
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Next, we uncover that the Arnolfinis were lesbians.
Mmmmm, lamb shanks.
Nope, but we did discover Giovanni is really Jamiroquai!
How did St. Bavo's Cathedral express its approval, and did it get St. Bavo's first?
I thought this was going to be one of those "Ecce Homo" stories where an amateur tried his/her hand at restoration and it just didn't work out as planned. Ecce Homo
"If you want to talk about what's "alarmingly anthropomorphic," begin with Jesus."
Uh, Jesus was a historical person, so "anthropomorphic" is rather silly to describe him.
Seriously, I seem to be missing something. Are those who are "alarmed" by symbols in early 15th century church art, especially symbols of Jesus, seeing something I am not? This is like being alarmed at seeing commercials on network TV.
Holy Aslan, Batman.
All those adoring eyes...are they Scotsmen?
-Lamb thoughts
If sheep could 'duckface'.
Grant us Peace.
After all these years, the Lamb of God is looking at you.
And it's creeping me out! Yeeeesh!
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis
The Lord is my shepherd, AND a sheep.
It doesn't look like 'restoration' to me. The eyes aren't even placed in the same position.
Mock, allegedly they just removed the overpaint.
Pretty weird pupils, but it would look even freakier with round human ones.
I'm imagining the screaming sheep's face on the painting, bleating away.
The eyes were properly placed on the lamb's head BEFORE restoration.
Now the eyes are human-like and WRONG in the update.
Althouse theology is the best theology.
What hasn't been mentioned: Christ as the Lamb of God was the fulfillment of all the Old Testament offerings, including the sin offering.
Read A Month in the Country. Great little novel about (OK, peripherally) about the restoration of a medieval church painting.
Regardless of your faith, religion, etc., "Behold, the Lamb of God" is one of the most beautiful choruses from Handel's Messiah. If you've never heard it, feast your ears for three minutes.
https://youtu.be/nemuZ9N9ntA
Jesus as the "Lamb of God" has a huge theological significance. After all, the entire point of Jesus is reconciliation with God. No unclean thing--i.e. sinful person--can dwell with God. Problem: we all sin. So we have a pressing need to become clean.
Classic answer to that has always been sacrifice. Old Testament times required sacrificing a pure lamb, without blemish. Now, if that works to cleanse you from sin, then Jesus, the "Lamb of God", was sacrificed for all of us. In fact, it is only because a sacrifice of a God that allows us to be cleansed from sin... and is what made the sacrifice of a sheep work in Old Testament times.
So it's entirely appropriate to put human eyes on the "Lamb of God" since, in fact, He was human.
What hasn't been mentioned: Christ as the Lamb of God was the fulfillment of all the Old Testament offerings, including the sin offering.
Exactly, Andrew. Christianity in a nutshell.
Buddha, Jesus, and Mohammed were all actual individuals.
With Superpowers. Like Joseph Smith.
Who can forget the day that Mohammed flew to heaven on his white horse. The greatest feat since Jesus rose from the dead.
Of course, Superman can fly faster than both of them
Lambs aren’t any cleaner than pigs. But they are cuter.
The reaction in social media that I read was chiefly head shaking about how simply ignorant people are in these latter days about the Christian religion and its history.
It was presumably the Bishop of Ghent or the dean of the St Bavo cathedral chapter who expressed himself satisfied with the work of restoration. The cathedral's website page dedicated to the Van Eyck painting is here.
that is because in the first instance he offers grace, and the conditions to attain it, in the next he will offer judgement,
Hinduism has over 1 billion adherents. Islam almost 2 billion, Christianity a little over 2 billion.
Each are major religions. It’s not as if most Christians understand Islam or Hinduism. Notre Dame is no more impressive than Angkor Wat.
Jesus lived after Aristotle. He lived a long time after the pyramids were built.
Most people are ignorant of others sacred beliefs. It’s a big world.
Blogger mockturtle said...
What hasn't been mentioned: Christ as the Lamb of God was the fulfillment of all the Old Testament offerings, including the sin offering.
Exactly, Andrew. Christianity in a nutshell.
So according to Christianity Christ is God sacrificing Himself as a lamb so He can forgive us? I must be missing something here.
God is also a shoving leopard.
The singularity of Christianity is Jesus being 100% man and 100% eternal God incarnated into a man. That is the only reason His offering of Himself on the cross as an eternal atonement for SIN. No other death is as important . Jesus offered God’s blood/death in our place. And the only reason it drives religions into denial is that the sacrifice of Jesus once for all is effective. That replaces any need for all other religions,
As Jesus last word on the cross said: it is finished.
Big Lambchop is watching you.
Jesus was a Jew who had no inkling of Buddhism or Hinduism because that’s not the part of the world he was from.
The part of the world he was from is mostly Muslim now, though that religion hadn’t been concocted yet.
he is the sacrifice, so none other is required, but his path, is much harder than a mere offering, because it entails behavior,
They "just" removed overpaint.
The question is -- who put the overpaint there in the first place. If it was the original artist(s), then it is a distortion.
And the eyes (and snout) are too crisp to not have had some touch-up painting.
Betcha can't wait to see how they "restore" Notre Dame Cathedral.
JoshBraid, the question of Jesus as an actual person is more controversial than you might realize. Some of the first big fights in the church were over how human Jesus was: entirely (Arrianism), not at all, only divine (monophysitism) or a mix of both, the position taken by most Western churches today. To take Jesus for a man is typical in our culture, but to suggest that Jesus was corrupted by human nature rather than being entirely divine and using a human body more like an avatar, not really him, is still heresy in some sects.
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