Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Tuesday 1 November 2011

All Saints


Today being the Feast of All Saints led me to think of images depicting the Company of Heaven and the one that immediately sprang to mind was the van Eyck's Ghent altarpiece The Adoration of the Lamb. Due to its scale it does not reproduce well on a blog, but it is familiar enough, and here is the lower central panel:


http://stjohncolton.org/Adoration%20of%20Mystic%20Lamb.jpg

The Adoration of the Lamb

Image:stjohncolton.com

The altarpiece was begun by Hubert van Eyck before 1426, the year in which he died, and completed by his younger brother Jan in 1432. There is an article about the painting and its chequered history here, which includes expandable details of all the panels.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0BkW4tV444VWxYP4QU5_NCHoXSQ2BXWLOf79W1_Y8zqPBxgxbsdw4IBGxj-ryQHvfPspnwFHlDFUPCfz-ItlpFbnWUyzkfXN0_xgKOsDACS6EZgXSILHh19p3GmrNVRKm9An3ZvO65V4/s1600/VanEyck-GhentAltarpiece.jpg

The complete interior of the altarpiece.

Image:blogs.artinfo.com

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