The Lamb Enthroned
“O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker”
This is De aanbidding van het Lam Gods: the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb. It is an Early Netherlandish work of the first few decades of 15th C, made by the brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck. The jubilation of the Lamb's heavenly coronation is projected onto an earthly plane: we see a a green, hilly landscape under a pale blue sky, with the towers of the heavenly Jerusalem visible on the horizon. In the middle ground, saints gather in two separate groups around a red stone altar and a jewel-encrusted fountain, representing the fountain of life.
On the altar stands a white lamb with a gold halo, blood flowing from a wound into a chalice. The lamb has a sweet, human-like face and is surrounded by 14 angels with golden wings wearing vivid red, blue, green and white robes. Several angels hold instruments of Christ's passion. Above the lamb hovers a white dove surrounded by rings of radiant golden light.
In the foreground, the fountain has an angel standing on two bronze dragons at the center, with streams of water pouring down. Figures kneel at the fountain, including prophets and sibyls on the left, and apostles and saints on the right.
The groups of holy men and women winding through the mid-ground landscape hold palms and wear flowered crowns, with extraordinary detail in the varied faces and costumes. The foreground, middle ground and background are layered with meticulous realism using atmospheric perspective. Though idealized, the plants and landscape have an observed naturalism that was unprecedented for Northern European art of the period.
The whole scene is awash with glory, radiating an unearthly golden light that emanates from the heavenly dove, giving it a transcendent, divine atmosphere. The vivid colors, realistic textures and supernatural lighting make this an altarpiece of astonishing majesty and beauty even 600 years later. It is an extraordinary scene: made more so by its context in the Ghent Altarpiece: the lower center of not less than twelve panels, organized around this rich and extraordinary coronation.
I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak.
— Ezekiel 34:16
Last Sunday after Pentecost
Texts for This Week
Prayer
Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well-beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Friedefürst
Bach set Jakob Ebert’s 1601 Chorale invoking Christ as “Du Friedefürst” (the Prince of Peace) in his 1724/5 Cantata, BWV 116 according to the modern numbering system. I regret I haven’t been able to find a version where you can listen and read, my apologies — you’ll have to study up first by reading the libretto here.
The invocation of our “Prince of Peace” seems especially poignant at this moment, reading the nexus of the year we find ourselves at against the peculiar distress and agony we see in our world. I, for one, experienced a deep moment of compunction in hearing the Alto’s wrenching plea at the end of the penultimate recitative, “Wohlan, so strecke deine Hand / Auf ein erschreckt geplagtes Land.” Come, stretch out your hand, to a frightened, tormented land!
