Detail from the Angel Musicians panel of the Ghent Altarpiece
In my previous post I pointed out that Jan van Eyck’s Angel Musicians are portrayed as being blind, and shown expressing a heightened sense of touch, smell and hearing.
Their blindness also links to the maxim, “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” as the angels’ ears are covered and their mouths closed.
The angel in blue, with her left hand resting on the shoulder of the angel in front, illustrates the sense of touch. The hands of the angel in red also express a sense of touch although this links to another narrative in the panel. Her sense of heightened hearing can be visualised in the viola’s ear-shaped sound hole.
The angel in the centre of this duo is portrayed as having a heightened sense of smell of an odour emanating from the hair of the angel in blue and the pattern of lilies on her collar; so referring to Chaucer’s words describing St Cecilia as “heaven’s lily” and “the sweet smell of ‘lily’ was her name.”
Disguised in the blue angel’s hair are shapes of three dogs. One refers to story in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales – The Monk’s Tale, and his pleasure in hunting with his hounds, and therefore a pun on the word ‘hair’ and the expression ‘Hare and Hounds’.
Another reference is to Cerberus, the three-headed hound, guardian of Hades. That this feature is adjacent to “heaven’s lily” may seem strange. But it expresses a point of good and evil co-existing in mankind on earth but not in heaven and hell. Lilies are considered poisonous to dogs.
Van Eyck also partially punned the word Cerberus with the partial forehead tucked behind the partially blind angel at the edge of the frame – Cerebrum, the largest part of the brain that contains conscious thoughts and actions.
More on the this and how the subject of blindness connects to another narrative in the panel and the Hussite Wars.
Ever wondered why Jan van Eyck tucked this angel behind the frame of the Musical Angels panel in the Ghent Altarpiece?
Behind her is another angel where only a portion of her hair and forehead is visible. Why bother, unless it’s meant to be a subtle part of the narrative?
A clue to the answer can be found in the seated angel at the pipe organ – St Cecilia, virgin and martyr, and patron saint of musicians. Seemingly, she is portrayed as being blind, or is she?
Here van Eyck is making another reference in the Ghent Altarpiece to Geoffrey Chaucer’s book The Canterbury Tales and one of its stories – The Second Nun’s Tale. Chaucer’s source, also utilised by van Eyck, was Cecilia’s biography contained in The Golden Legend, a collection of hagiographies attributed to Jacobus de Voragine. Each biography begins with an etymology of the saint’s name, often imaginative.
Just as imaginative are the many visual interpretations van Eyck applied to the descriptions provided by Chaucer and Voragine.
The five angels placed behind the organ are portrayed as blind in some way, and can be said to represent the five foolish virgins in Matthew’s gospel (25:1-4) who waited on the bridegroom but brought lamps without oil. When the bridegroom arrived, they were without light, and so in darkness.
Another biblical passage Van Eyck embedded was from Luke’s gospel (6:39-43), the parables about a blind man leading others and every tree being recognised by the fruit it produces.
St Cecilia also spoke about blindness when she was ordered by her judge, the Roman prefect Tarsus Almacheus, to make sacrifice before a stone statue of Mars. “There lacks nothing to your outer eyes,” she responded “except that you are blind, for the thing we all see is a stone that all men see well, that same stone you call a god. Since you do not see with your blind eyes, I say to you, let your hand touch it and feel it, and you will find it to be stone.”
It is said that those who are blind are compensated with a heightened sense of touch, hearing and smell.
In explaining the origins of the name Cecilia, both Voragine and Chaucer refer to it as “heaven’s lily” because the flower’s white and green colours represent pureness of chastity and good reputation, “The sweet smell of ‘lily’ was her name,” wrote Chaucer.
Voragine’s etymology for Cecilia’s name reads: “Cecilia is as much to say as the lily of heaven, or a way to blind men. Or she is said of celo and lie, or else cecilia, as lacking blindness. Or she is said of celo, that is heaven, and legs, that is people. She was a heavenly lily by cleanness of virginity, a way to blind men by information of example, heaven by devout contemplation, lia by busy operation, lacking blindness by shining of wisdom, and heaven of the people. For the people beheld in her as in following the spiritual heaven, the sun, the moon, and the stars, that is to say, shining of wisdom, magnanimity of faith, and diversity of virtues. Or she is said a lily, for she had the whiteness of cleanness, a good conscience, and odour of good fame. Or she is said heaven, for Isidore saith that the philosophers say that heaven is movable, round, and burning. In like wise was she moving by busy operation, round by perseverance, and burning by fiery charity.”
Another sense associated with the blind is hearing, and it this faculty which links with Cecilia’s marriage to Valerian. She sat apart from him on her wedding day, and on “hearing the organs making melody, Cecilia sang in her heart, only to God…” Hence why van Eyck portrayed Cecilia seated at and playing the organ.
So now we have three faculties associated with the sightless: touch, smell and hearing.
Luke wrote: “Jesus also told a parable to them, ‘Can one blind man guide another? Surely both will fall into a pit? The disciple is not superior to the teacher; the fully trained disciple will always be like his teacher. Why do observe the splinter in your brother’s eye and never notice the plank in your own?” (6:39-41)
So at this point and mention of the plank in the eye, we can return to the start of this post and observe the plank and eye, the wood frame van Eyck utilised to cover the angel’s left eye! It also suggests the veil of a nun and so a link to Chaucer’s story.
As to finding the splinter, the reference to falling into the pit, and the iconography depicting the sense of touch, smell, and hearing, I shall provide an explanation in my next post.
Following on from my previous post (Notes concerning St Cecilia), I recently came across this busy illustration on Wikipedia, described as a “War Chariot, or castle car of the Hussite Wars”
Wikipedia introduces its page on the Hussite Wars as follows:
The Hussite Wars, also called the Bohemian Wars or the Hussite Revolution, were a series of civil wars fought between the Hussites and the combined Catholic forces of Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, the Papacy, and European monarchs loyal to the Catholic Church, as well as various Hussite factions. At a late stage of the conflict, the Utraquists changed sides in 1432 to fight alongside Roman Catholics and opposed the Taborites and other Hussite spin-offs. These wars lasted from 1419 to approximately 1434.
What I can reveal is that this particular watercolour was utilised by Jan Van Eyck for the Angel Musicians panel in the Ghent Altarpiece. The illustration is dated circa 1437, but the definitive date of 1432 for completion on the frame of the altarpiece confirms that the illustration is of an earlier date.
Another connection in the Ghent Altarpiece to the Hussite Wars is Cardinal Henry Beaufort, a son of John of Gaunt (Ghent). Beaufort was assigned as a papal legate to Bohemia, Austria and Germany and led a crusade against the Hussites in 1427 but his forces were routed at the Battle of Tachov. Beaufort appears in three of the Ghent Altarpiece panels: the Just Judges, the Knights of Christ, and the centre panel (alongside Hubert Van Eyck). He was also in attendance at the official unveiling of the altarpiece in 1432.
I shall expand on this and explain some of the connections between the Angel Musicians and the War Chariot drawing in a future post.Know also that Jan Van Eyck embedded several references in the panel to the passage from Luke’s gospel 6 : 39-46.
Celebrated by many Christians today is the Feast of St Cecilia, patron saint of musicians and singers.
Cecilia features in the Ghent Altarpiece painted by Jan and Hubert Van Eyck.
The legend about Cecilia’s martyrdom is that she was struck three times on the neck with a sword, but lived for three days after that before she died.
Notice the serrated edge of the plate which the viola’s strings attach to, and how it points down to Cecilia’s neck.
The Musical Angels panel of the Ghent Altarpiece is not all that it appears to be at surface level. Jan Van Eyck embedded several narratives in the composition, some of which link to the Singing Angels panel in the altarpiece. More on this in a future post.
Cecilia also featured on the reverse of an English twenty pound note, now withdrawn from circulation.
An interactive digital exhibition of some of Jan van Eyck’s paintings is underway at the Gemäldgalerie Staatliche Museen in Berlin. The projections allow visitors to “zoom in” on the smallest details of the works.
Curated by Dr Stephan Kemperdick, the exhibition opened on 20 October 2023 and ends on 3 March 2024.
More information about “Zoom on Van Eyck” is at this link.
I recently “zoomed in” on detail disguised in the Singing Angels panel of the Ghent Altarpiece, some of which I presented in my previous post when I revealed that Van Eyck had visited Cirencester. But there is much more I have yet to disclose about the panel that confirms Jan had also travelled to Florence and Rome, probably in 1425.
In October 2018, the city of Ghent launched a year long festival in honour of the Flemish painter Jan Van Eyck. The logo produced to identify and name the festival was a boxed figure of speech: OMG! VAN EYCK WAS HERE. It was superimposed on a portrait of an angel from the Singing Angels panel belonging to the Ghent Altarpiece.
The logo created by the Oval Office for the campaign OMG! VAN EYCK WAS HERE
The phrase is in recognition of the Latin inscription featured on the wall above the mirror in Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait. It translates as: “Jan Van Eyck was here 1434”.
Detail from the Arnolfini Portrait by Jan Van Eyck, National Gallery, London
I doubt very much if anyone in modern times ever realised there is one significant location apart from Ghent which can also claim that “Jan van Eyck was here” – a town closely linked to not only the Singing Angels but also the Pilgrims panel in the Ghent Altarpiece.
Detail from the Pilgrims panel, Ghent Altarpiece, St Bavo’s Cathedral
Jan van Eyck is said to have travelled widely on behalf of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, predominately to places of pilgrimage. In the Pilgrims panel, a young Van Eyck (circled) can be seen among the group following the towering figure of St Christopher, the patron saint of travellers. His head is shaped to resemble an acorn, the fruit of the oak, and “van Eyck” translates as “of the Oak”. Notice also his pilgrim staff, perhaps made of oak, but also a link to another narrative in the panel that reveals a second identity given to the figure of St Christopher.
Detail from the Singing Angels panel, Ghent Altarpiece, St Bavo’s Cathedral
The prominent figure in the Singing Angels group is the one featured as part of the festival logo, but there is a harmonious look to all of the eight angels that suggests they could be from the same family – sisters.
But their alluring looks and voices could also imply they represent Sirens, island creatures of mythology. Considered symbolic of temptation, the Sirens beauty and beguiling songs would draw ships to wreck on rocky coastlines, and seduce sailors to drown themselves. Sirens are portrayed as birdlike with upper human bodies. They are also sometimes depicted as mermaids.
So here we see Van Eyck engaged in wordplay, punning Siren and Sister to produce the word Cirencester, a market town in England, famed for its once-thriving wool trade and industry that brought prosperity and riches to the merchants of the town.
A beneficiary of the wool wealth was Cirencester’s parish church of St John the Baptist. Though it originates from the 12th century, its expansion was financed by rich merchants and their families, some of whom were acknowledged with having their coat of arms displayed in the church. And it’s here that the connection and inspiration for Van Eyck’s Singing Angels can be recognised.
A selection of corbel angels above the columns in the church of St John the Baptist, Cirencester Images by kind permission of Paul Dykes Photography@ flickr.com
The corbels above the columns in the church appear to be shield-bearing angels, but can also be viewed as sirens of the bird variety. And the heads have a familiar look to Van Eyck’s Singing Angels.
North of the church chancel is St Catherine’s Chapel. It dates from around 1150 and contains the residue of a wall painting depicting St Christopher carrying the Child Jesus. This image was the likely source of inspiration for Van Eyck’s Pilgrims panel and probably explains one of the reasons why he painted himself among the group.
Detail of the wall painting featuring St Christopher in St Catherine’s chapel, Cirencester
The Child is barely visible against the saint’s shoulder, but Van Eyck echoed the feature by placing a similar head at the shoulder of St Christopher in the Pilgrims panel. Notice also the female figure at the rear in the wall painting. Van Eyck picked up on this and placed the “Wife of Bath” in a similar position. In this instance the young Jan Van Eyck in the Pilgrims panel now became “Jankyn” van Eyck and the woman’s sixth husband in Chaucer’s account of the Wife of Bath in The Canterbury Tales.
Detail from the Pilgrims panel, Ghent Altarpiece, St Bavo’s Cathedral
Although the wall painting is much deteriorated, notice the woman’s focus appears to be on the upper half of St Christopher’s staff and the head to its left. This may also explain why Van Eyck painted himself holding a staff placed ahead of the woman known as “Alice”. As a motif, Van Eyck’s head to the side of the staff is also repeated as the head next to the one held by St Christopher.
But why Cirencester? Further confirmation of the town and the answer as to why Van Eyck made reference to it can be found in the heads of two other figures in the altarpiece.
Joan of Arc represented in the Singing Angels panel
The first is the head of the highest placed angel in the Singing Angels panel. Her head is turned and facing right. She represents Joan of Arc and is formed as the head of a battering ram which I explained in an earlier post – Joan of Arc, battering ram. This is a reference to another location in Cirencester, the Ram Inn. Perhaps Van Eyck boarded there when he visited the town. But there is another narrative that connects to the inn and which Van Eyck embedded in the Just Judges panel of the Ghent Altarpiece.
There are ten riders in the Just Judges panel. Van Eyck gave each rider four identities and for each identity applied a connection with one of the riders next to it. Two of the identities portrayed by the rider in blue at the back of the group are Joan of Arc and the English king Richard II. They connect in this way: Joan dressed as a man during her heavenly-inspired mission, while Richard II was regarded as presenting a feminine side to his nature while ruling as a king of divine right.
Left, the double portrait of Joan of Arc and Richard II featured in the Just Judges panel. Right: the profile of Richard II in the Wilton Diptych.
Van Eyck may also have had the famous Wilton Diptych in mind when he painted the Ghent Altarpiece. One half portrays Richard II supported by the English saints King Edmund the Martyr and King Edward the Confessor, alongside his patron Saint John the Baptist. (Two of the riders behind Richard in the Just Judges can also be identified as kings).
In the diptych’s facing panel, the Virgin Mary is featured bearing the Christ Child, accompanied by a host of heavenly angels, and calls to mind the choir of Van Eyck’s Singing Angels. However, there is seemingly no visual presence of Richard in the panel, unless we take into account the reference to Cirencester.
The Wilton Diptych, National Gallery, London.
In 1399 Henry Bolingbroke, a cousin of Richard II, made a claim for the king’s throne. The outcome was that Richard abdicated and Bolingbroke was crowned king Henry IV. In early January, 1440, a group of Richard’s supporters attempted to restore him as the rightful king but the plot, known as the Epiphany Rising, was uncovered and the ringleaders and their retinue fled West in an attempt to escape and raise support for the rebellion.
The rebels, with a force of arms, arrived at Cirencester, and the leaders commandeered the Ram Inn as a base to continue the uprising and encourage support for the rebellion against king Henry IV. But the local people were in no mood to join them and within 24 hours four of the leaders were apprehended and beheaded without trial. Other leaders escaped but were soon captured at Bristol, Oxford and Pleshey, and then executed.
Thomas Holland
The Singing Angels panel embeds several references to the Epiphany Rising and in particular to the widow of one of the rebels, Joan Stafford. She was the wife of Thomas Holland, 1st Duke of Surrey, 3rd Earl of Kent, who was beheaded at Cirencester, pictured here.
Thomas had six sisters!
Joan Stafford was also the daughter of Hugh Stafford, 2nd earl of Stafford, KG, (c1342 – October 13, 1386), a second identity given to the St Christopher figure in the Pilgrims panel. Follow the link to find out more about this connection and discover a third identity that Van Eyck applied to the bearded figure. The painter Roger Campinis the fourth identity.
Joan of Arc doubling up as Richard II, riding with Geoffrey Chaucer and Jan Van Eyck.
A further connection to the Holland name is the reference Van Eyck made in the Just Judges panel to the Hook and Cod Wars, “a series of wars and battles in the County of Holland between 1350 and 1490.”
Richard II was an uncle to Thomas Holland, as a half brother to his father, also named Thomas.
In a letter to a benefactor requesting financial support, the French theologian and preacher Jean Gerson wrote:“The dolphins in their formations are harbingers of the storm, messengers of melancholy, most certain prophets of sorrow. Giving their tidings in wedge-shaped formation, alas, they come, bringing threats of cruel fate.”
There are various dates attributed to this early letter ranging from 1382 to 1390. But in 1393 Gerson’s fortunes took an upturn when he became almoner and confessor to Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, as well as receiving a benefice when he was appointed Dean of the collegiate church of St Donatian in Bruge.
The precincts of the church of St Donatian was where Jan Van Eyck was first laid to rest in 1441 before his body was later translated into the church and buried near the baptismal font.
The mention of dolphins in Gerson’s letter may have alluded to the dauphins of the French throne. When the French King Charles V died in 1380, his brother Philip the Bold became more active at the court of France and served as the dominant of four regents when Charles VI, his nephew, succeeded to the throne at the age of 11.
In the donor panel of the Mérode Altarpiece Philip the Bold, now Gerson’s patron, and the reference to dolphins, is visually embedded in an inspired fashion that includes a homophonic pun on the duke’s name Philip – Flip – as in the acrobatic fashion of dolphins, and its flipper limbs. So let’s flip an image published in my previous post, Gerson’s purse and its attached buckles, and examine it from a new perspective.
Now we are presented with the upper open jaws of three dolphins baring their teeth. The two larger mammals appears to have scrolls in their mouth, perhaps echoing the text in Gerson’s letter describing dolphins as messengers of melancholy and prophets of sorrow.
Various causes of melancholy or depression are often referred to in Gerson’s writings, and as a priest and preacher he could be described as a prophet of sorrow in calling and encouraging people to repent.
Philip was given the epithet “the Bold” when, as a fourteen-year-old, he fought bravely at the side of his father, the French king John, at the Battle of Poitiers. Both were taken captive at the battle on September 19, 1356, and brought to London where they remained for four years before a ransom was agreed and paid for their release.
• The information appertaining to Jean Gerson and his letter is sourced from the book Jean Gerson Early Works, translated and introduced by Brian Patrick McGuire, and published by Paulist Press, Mahwah, New Jersey.
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