Crimes Behind the Canvas presents Ghent Altarpiece Part II: The First Battle Over a Masterpiece
The Ghent Altarpiece was created as an object of devotion, but it quickly became something much larger. In medieval Europe, religious artwork was never simply decoration. Paintings, sculptures, and altarpieces were powerful symbols of faith, community, and influence. They represented the wealth of the people who commissioned them and the importance of the institutions that displayed them.
The Ghent Altarpiece stood at the center of all three.
For the people of Ghent, the masterpiece was more than an impressive work of art inside a cathedral. It was part of the city's identity. Its presence reflected the wealth and importance of Ghent as one of the major trading centers of medieval Europe. The altarpiece represented the city's devotion, prosperity, and cultural achievements.
But that made it a valuable target when political and religious conflicts began sweeping across Europe.
The first threats to the Ghent Altarpiece did not come from a thief sneaking through a window in the middle of the night. They came from a much larger force: the changing world around it.
During the sixteenth century, Europe was transformed by the Protestant Reformation. Religious conflicts spread across the continent, and churches became battlegrounds over competing beliefs. In many regions, religious images were viewed as symbols of corruption rather than devotion. Works of art that had survived for generations were destroyed during waves of iconoclasm, when groups attacked or removed religious imagery from churches.
In 1566, the destruction reached Ghent. A wave of iconoclasts moved through the Netherlands, destroying religious artwork they believed represented improper worship. The Ghent Altarpiece became one of their targets. Knowing that the masterpiece was in danger, church officials took extraordinary measures to protect it.
The panels were carefully removed and hidden inside the cathedral tower. For a short time, the greatest threat to the altarpiece was not theft for profit, but destruction because of what it represented.
The painting survived.
But its dangerous journey was only beginning.
Over the following centuries, the Ghent Altarpiece would repeatedly find itself caught between competing powers. To some, it was a sacred object. To others, it was a symbol of national pride. To conquerors, it was a valuable trophy that represented the cultural achievements of a defeated enemy.
And eventually, it would attract the attention of one of history's most ambitious empire builders.
In 1794, as revolutionary France expanded its power across Europe, French armies entered the Austrian Netherlands and began confiscating works of art from churches, monasteries, and collections throughout the region. These confiscations were not isolated incidents but part of a systematic campaign of cultural appropriation during the French Revolutionary Wars and foreshadowing to the massive looting that occurred during the Napoleonic Era.
The Ghent Altarpiece became one of their prizes.
For the first time, the masterpiece was removed from its home not because someone wanted to destroy it, but because someone wanted to possess it.
The painting was transported to Paris, where it joined countless other works seized during the French Revolutionary Wars. The Louvre (then known as the Musée Central des Arts) was being transformed into a collection unlike anything the world had seen before.
But France did not view these acquisitions as theft. They saw them as the spoils of victory.
To the revolutionaries, bringing the greatest works of European art to Paris represented the transfer of cultural treasures from old monarchies and religious institutions to the people.
To everyone whose artwork had been taken, it looked very different. The altarpiece was not returned to Ghent until 1815 when the French lost the Battle of Waterloo.
And this would not be the last time a powerful ruler decided the masterpiece belonged somewhere other than Ghent.
Stay tuned for Part III...
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