Today, my group and I visited the city of Ghent, where we were able to see many structures and art pieces! While I found today extremely fun and informational, I think my favorite part of the day was being able to see the Ghent Alterpiece. While not all the real panels were there, I was still amazed to see most of the real panels together right before my eyes! And while the lighting in the room wasn’t very good for pictures, I’m still happy to know I was able to see it in person. And I was okay that they were not all completely together because I saw the other pieces at the Fine Arts Museum, where they were being fixed.

For a good portion of my freshman seminar class, we talked about the symbolism and the high quality of the whole piece in itself! The design, the details, the meaning of each and every little bit of it, and how it all tied together. I consider myself to be a pretty religious Christian, so when I saw the Alterpiece in person, I was in complete awe at the sight of it. I know many people who don’t consider themselves to be religious at all, but when they saw it, I could tell they were in absolute amazement by it.

Considering how old these series of paintings are, I am so amazed that they are still in relatively good shape. Despite the fact that the paintings were not together either, I was still glad that I was able to see all of them! And seeing them in person also made me really wish that the Just Judges panel was found because I could tell that that panel looked slightly different than the other ones. Hopefully, one of these days, the panel will be found and all the original ones will be together again!