A Master Work, "The Ghent Altarpiece", Reawakens Stroke By Stroke.

Illustration: THE NEW YORK TIMES

These interior wooden panels, featuring Adam and Eve (holding a citrus fruit),

and the iconic 

The Adoration of The Mystic Lamb,” have yet to be restored.

For many years, the inside panels 

were only displayed on Feast Days.

Picture Credit: Hugo Maertens, Lukas-Art in Flanders/St. Bavo Cathedral.

This Article is taken from, and can be read in full at, THE NEW YORK TIMES

GHENT, Belgium — Layers and layers of paint have been virtually and physically removed from the 15th-Century Ghent Altarpiece, a renowned work of biblical figures on wood panels, revealing for the first time in hundreds of years the individual brush strokes of the original paintings.

In this first phase of restoration on one of the earliest art works to use oil paints on a large scale, new scanning techniques uncovered the singular skills of the Flemish brothers, Jan and Hubert Van Eyck, beneath layers of over-painting and varnish.

The restoration, which has been taking place for the last four years at The Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent, Belgium, has involved painstaking work that has led to a number of discoveries, including the dating of several wooden panels from the same oak trees.