Revisiting the Ghent Altarpiece
I wouldn’t think of trying to make a copy of the Ghent Altarpiece. I expect that would take a person months to do, but really, what would be the point. I hesitated to even represent it in a sketch, but it is really important to this story, as something I wanted to see again after 38 years.
I remember it as an object of spiritual adoration. Now, though, it has a very different importance. There is no prie-dieux; no one comes to place offerings or to burn candles or sticks of incense. In fact, the incense and candle smoke has been meticulously cleaned from its surface. Like the Mona Lisa, it stands behind thick glass, surrounded on all sides a sturdy barrier so that it can be seen from the back as well as the front. It is probably in a temperature- and humidity-controlled environment now. It represents a different kind of precious, cultural rather than spiritual. You don’t pray in front of this painting; you snatch an image of it on your iPhone.
Amsterdam
In Amsterdam I visited the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum—and don’t plan to represent anything from either of them. But did challenge myself to draw a building that caught my eye. It reminds me of a well-known house on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
