![]() The result is a work that is at once amusing and profound – one that reminds the observer not only of the perishability of life but how our physical existence is comprised, materially, of the fragile world around us. Painted by the 16th Century Milanese Mannerist Giuseppe Arcimboldo, who would later inspire the imaginations of 20th Century Surrealist painters, Reversible Head With Basket of Fruit tricks the eye into the restless exercise of constructing and destroying one image in favour of the other. The fibrous lashes of his chestnut eye wink at you playfully to punctuate the visual joke. Flip the oil-on-panel work on its head, as if shaking loose the fruit that fills the wicker basket, and suddenly the plumped-up portrait of a stranger assembles itself from the bright jumble of assorted sweetness. It really is once in a lifetime.Tilt the painting one way and it is a vibrant heap of autumnal bounty, as apples, pears, grapes, and figs puzzle for position in an alluring, if seemingly conventional, still life. ‘The last time that parts of the Ghent Altarpiece were shown together with other works by Van Eyck was in the Musée Napoléon in Paris between 18, and in Berlin between 1830 until 1918,’ explains Till-Holger Borchert. ‘It is unlikely that the Ghent Altarpiece or substantial parts of it will ever be lent again. So, this is your chance. Following a major restoration project that began in 2012, the eight outer panels will now go on display outside of Saint Bavo’s Cathedral once again. ![]() Dismantled many times over and looted by Napoleon and the Nazis, it was finally reassembled after the end of the Second World War. Of these, perhaps the most famous is The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, above, also known as the Ghent Altarpiece. Today, however, only around 20 authenticated Van Eyck works survive, all of which reside in public institutions around the world. Over the next 20 years or so, Van Eyck painted many religious commissions as well as portraits of Burgundian courtiers, local nobles, clergymen and influential merchants. ‘They will be experienced one after another, which will change our ideas about what “Flemish Primitive” means.’ ‘ Optical Illusion is staged in a sequence of galleries, so not all the Van Eycks will be in one room,’ he explains. The effect of showing so many Van Eyck masterpieces in one exhibition is ‘mindblowing’, according to Till-Holger Borchert, Director of Musea Brugge, who has collaborated on the exhibition. ![]() They include the eight recently restored exterior panels of The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb (1432), Van Eyck’s magnificent altarpiece created in collaboration with his brother Hubert for St Bavo’s Cathedral in Ghent - plus more than 100 works by Van Eyck’s most talented peers and followers. Described by the curators as a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ exhibition, it features more than half of the approximately 20 surviving Van Eyck works. In February the largest Jan van Eyck exhibition ever staged, Van Eyck: An Optical Illusion, opened at the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent. ‘His extraordinary handling of oil paint allowed him to express the acuteness of his observations as no one had achieved before,’ declares Dr Susan Foister, Deputy Director of the National Gallery in London. Intricately detailed and ablaze with brilliant colour, the mesmerising paintings of early 15th-century Flemish master Jan van Eyck (1395?-1441) are among the most groundbreaking works in the history of Western art.
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