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Ghent Altarpiece and the Body of God |
by David Bowman
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edited by Jennifer Rose Emick
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| Jan Van Eyck, opened Ghent Altarpiece |
Van Eyck’s Ghent Altarpiece polytych is also known as Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, after the central scene in the work depicting the worship of an iconic lamb. The whole of the work is actually a collection of paintings arranged into a large folding screen, with two doors that open to reveal a complex scene, flanked by smaller portraits of angels and saints. There are many interesting details in these smaller works, but it is the main work, with it's mysterious symbolism, that I will attempt to interpret here.
The exact meaning of Van Eyck’s rich iconography baffles scholars, but especially elusive is the figure of Christ in the center of the opened altarpiece since it is not certain whether the figure represents Christ, god the father, or both.
The central panels of the work seem especially suited to a gnostic interpretation. The vision is twofold: at the top what appears to be a conventional trinity consisting of the Virgin, Christ, and John the Baptist, while below the ideal is the symbolic world representing the adoration of the Mystic Lamb. On closer inspection, the symbols employed in the composition give an overall feeling of a mystical theme, illustrating the basics of kabbalistic metaphysics.
The most intriguing is a string of symbols aligned to the vertical axis of the panel:
a fountain,
the sacrificial lamb,
a dove,
and on the upper panel, the crown.
It is tempting to compare these symbolic ‘stations’ of the opened Ghent Altarpiece to the stations of the central pillar of the Tree of Life, because they align so well with the traditional kabbalistic symbolism.
1 - Kether [Crown]
The string of symbols begins at the top with Kether, the first Sephira of the Tree of Life. Kether means ‘crown’ and it is illustrated beneath the enthroned Pater on the top panel.
6 - Tiphareth [Beauty]
A straightforward relationship can be inferred between the sacrificial lamb and the ideas associated with the 6th sephira Tiphareth at the center of the Tree of Life. The ‘dying gods’ those solar/phallic sacrificial deities who were annually sacrificed and resurrected, are particularly at home in the sixth sephira. For the ancients the Lamb was another symbol of the sun, and stood in for many solar deities before Christ. Christian kabbalists considered Tiphareth as the Christ center, a symbol of redemption through sacrifice. The gnostic formula behind this idea suggests that ‘self’ needs to be sacrificed if a ‘spiritual being’, a Christ, is to be born.
9 - Yesod [Foundation]
The next obvious sephira descending on the Middle Pillar is Yesod, the foundation of the Tree of Life. The fountain of life is a common symbol of the ninth sephira whether as a metaphor of the subconscious or amniotic fluid, among many other ideas behind Yesod.
The tenth sephira Malkuth, is represented simply by the earth in the foreground. In such manner Van Eyck’s string of symbols well represent the ideas behind the sephiroth of the Middle Pillar (Kether, Tiphareth, Yesod, and Malkuth).
2 & 3 - Chokmah and Binah [Wisdom & Understanding]
The sephiroth of the Middle Pillar are genderless, because they lay on the axis of equilibrium, which is reflected also in Van Eyck’s abstract string of symbols, while the sephiroth surrounding the central pillar aare assigned symbolic gender. At the top of the Pillar of Mercy and the Pillar of Severity are Chokmah and Binah, represented John the Baptist and the Virgin Mary. John on the right and Mary on the left side of the Godfather correctly reflect the gender of Chokmah (male) and Binah (female). The logos is represented by John the Baptist with his typical gesture of the raised forefinger (wand). Opposite is Mary in the role of Binah, the Great Mother, capable of producing endless form shaped by the logos. This Mary could also be seen as another Mary, especially as Van Eyck painted her as a young woman. According to the legends of the gnostic Mandaeans, Mary Magdalene was the spouse of Yochanan, as they call John the Baptist.
The first trinity of the Tree of Life (Kether, Chokmah, and Binah) can thus be compared to the trinity represented on the Ghent Altarpiece consisting of God the father, John the Baptist, and Mary (Magdalene). Every member of the trinity occupies his/her own panel and is thus isolated from the main scene, reflecting similar division of the Tree of Life, wherein the three supernal sephiroth are beyond the manifest. To further bolster this interpretation, these figures are further isolated by the border separating the panels -where you would expect to see the Abyss represented on the typical Tree of Life. Next, a gate between the two worlds is needed.
Daleth
The dove is traditionally the sacred bird of Venus and in Christianity, a metaphor for the Holy Spirit. As an expression of the Holy Spirit the dove is often portrayed in scenes of Jesus’ baptism, or in case of Marian iconography, representing the transmission from ‘above to below’. The dove corresponds to the path of Daleth (door), the path which according to Isaac Luria’s (1534-1572) disposition of the paths connects Kether with Tiphareth, or Macroprosopus with Microprosopus. The dove of the Ghent Altarpiece is positioned between the crown (Kether) and the Lamb (Tiphareth), which correctly reflects the Lurian order of the Tree of Life.
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| Central panels of Van Eyck’s Triumph Agnus Dei compared to the Tree of Life |
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The remaining four stations of the altarpiece are correct in number, but not as clearly clearly defined as the preceding six. The remaining sephiroth are represented by four symmetrically positioned groups of people arrayed around the Lamb.
4 & 5 - Chesed and Geburah [Mercy & Strength]
The manifested world, which embraces the seven sephiroth below the trinity, occupies the main panel depicting the adoration of the Lamb (Tiphareth). Below Binah and Chokmah on the kabbalistic celestial ladder follow Chesed (Mercy) and Geburah (Strength) that can be summarized as conservation and change. These two stations correspond to the two groups, female and male, illustrated in the distance approaching the altar with the Lamb from both sides.
The value of martyrs is in every religious scheme of sublime importance for the believers. The only trouble with ascribing these two stations from the altarpiece to Chesed and Geburah is that the gender is reversed; Chesed is usually assigned to the male and Geburah to the female, although this may be an issue of perspective.
7 & 8 - Netzach and Hod [Victory & Splendor]
Directly below Chesed and Geburah (the martyrs) are Netzach (Victory) and Hod (Splendor) and both sephiroth are inhabited by those who adore the Lamb. On the left side is a host of pagan philosophers and Jewish prophets who occupy the sephira Hod, the sphere of language and reason. In symbolic opposition on the other side of the Lamb is the host of the Christian champions thus occupying the emotional sphere of Venus, Netzach. Christianity is represented as a natural successor of pagan and Jewish wisdom like Netzach succeeds Hod to a position ‘closer’ to the Golden Lamb.
Since we have both pagans and Jews adoring the Lamb (Tiphareth) together with the Christians one might speculate that the composers of the Ghent Altarpiece had a gnostic insight that a universal truth lays at the core of different religions.
Conclusion
If all the coincidences are taken into consideration it seems possible that the source of this composition is the kabbalistic scheme illustrated by the Tree of Life. This version is of course Christianized in the typical fashion by which Christian philosophers sought to reconcile their faith with philosophies they admired.
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 "Ghent Altarpiece and the Body of God")
 "Ghent Altarpiece and the Body of God")
