The Mountain Goats, Steal Smoked Fish + Jan van Eyck, The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb (closed view)

details in the ghent altarpiece, completed in 1432

Ghent Altarpiece -  Hubert and Jan van Eyck

Trying out a mix of my own style and the game's. I can't seem to get Narinder to look quite the way I want him to, because of course that precious bastard cat has to be difficult. >:\ I was expecting the Bishops to be a lot harder to draw, but they were pretty cooperative. Ratau, on the other hand...man, fuck that little dude. I redrew him five times and I still don't like how he looks. >:[

I decided to take a few creative liberties with what Leshy and Shamura are wearing under their cloaks. Mostly because I find it funny to ban Leshy from freeballing down there, and also because I wanted to incorporate the many bandages Shamura has for their eldritch form in some way.

ALSO I GAVE THE APPROPRIATE ANIMALS BACK THEIR TAILS BECAUSE BOTH THEY AND WE WERE ROBBED D:<

Oh, right, and there's this weirdo, too

In the full file of all these goobers together, they're judging everyone else with that look.

I should have been asleep hours ago BYE

(yeets this post into the tumblrsphere and collapses)

Wife Mystic Seller doodle before I go to bed

I'm very normal about it- ♡

The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb

It has been called the first masterpiece of the Renaissance, the forefather of artistic realism, and the first major oil painting (though that last claim is dubious, since oil paints were in use in Asia as early as the 7th century). In the last five centuries, it has been involved in seven separate thefts and is possibly the most stolen work in art history (the bottom left panel has never been recovered, a reproduction now stands in its place). It’s Jan van Eyck’s Adoration of the Mystic Lamb A.K.A. The Ghent Altarpiece. Rather, it’s the comprehensive treatment of The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb printed and published in 1964 by Arti Grafiche Ricordi of Milan, under the auspices of the Belgian National Commission for UNESCO.

The text is by Valentin Denis, a Belgian professor of Archeology and Art History, and translated into English from the French by Michael Langley. Arti Grafiche Ricordi had also published the original French edition in 1963, as well as an Italian translation the same year. A Dutch-language edition was published in 1964 in Amsterdam by Bonaventura, an imprint of Elsevier (both names an homage to the lauded Dutch House of Elzevir). Despite the change in publisher, the Dutch edition maintains the same design that is consistent across all three of the Ricordi editions. The plates are printed in full-color letterpress halftone on wood veneer laminated to carboard. The first plate is a fold-out triptych, allowing readers to view the entire altarpiece, both open and closed. The following 24 plates focus on the panels, showing individual panels in their entirely and also honing in on details, such as the extreme close up of the background flora and architecture on the upper left corner of the central panel (eighth image above). 

Arti Grafiche Ricordi was the graphic design arm of Casa Ricordi, founded in 1808 by the violinist Giovanni Ricordi and predominantly known as a publisher of classical music and opera. The publishing house came to prominence by developing privileged relationships with major 19th-century Italian composers like Rossini, Verdi, and later, Puccini. The firm maintained full family control, with four generations of Ricordi’s at the helm, for over a century, and remains a major name in classical music publishing (now as a subsidiary of Universal Music Group). But Arti Grafiche Ricordi has its own influential past in Italian graphic design. Giulio, the third Ricordi to lead the firm, first bolstered the Officine Grafiche, hiring as the creative director the German Adolfo Hohenstein in 1888. Hohenstein and Officine Grafiche would go on to train the bulk of the first generation of great Italian poster designers. 

Find more Decorative Sunday posts here. 

-Olivia Hickner, Special Collections Graduate Intern

charles leclerc (dan istitene, 2022) // detail of the virgin mary from the ghent altarpiece, or the adoration of the mystic lamb (hubert and jan van eyck, 1432)

(charles x art, 20/?)

- Adoration of the Mystic Lamb (detail of the Ghent Altarpiece, Jan van Eyck, c. 1432) - Charles Leclerc, Austria GP 2023

Seriously, Belgium trip Anon, if you don't go to Ghent to see the Ghent Altarpiece I will be so very disappointed in you. (lol)

Jan van Eyck, Ghent Altarpiece (Adoration of the Mystic Lamb), mid 1420s-1432, oil/panel (St Bavo Cathedral, Ghent)

Once again, a masterpiece that had to be rescued from Nazis:

Dismantled Ghent Altarpiece being found in Altaussee salt mine, 1945

Adoration of the Mystic Lamb (Ghent Altarpiece) by Hubert van Eyck and Jan van Eyck, 1420s-1432.

God's favorite Lamb

In a village shrouded in mystic lore, Lived Luna, the lamb the Gods adored. A Sadistic deity, twisted and sly, Favored Luna, beneath the celestial sky.

Driven by hunger, Luna felt the call, To the woods he went, brave and small. In the shadows deep, he sought a feast, Tasty berries for the God, a divine treat at least.

Through the dense woods, Luna roamed, His wooly coat and spirit, brightly toned. Berries ripe, a crimson delight, Gathering gifts for the God, in the soft moonlight.

But the woods, with its mysteries, claimed his heart, Luna, the lamb, chose not to depart. Into the shadows, he gracefully fades, A missing lamb in the woodland shades.

The God's favorite, now lost, In the depths of the woods, at an untold cost. Berries forgotten, the God's desire unsated, Luna's tale in the woods forever unabated.

[ — I N T R O ]

hello, this is my first ever writeblr intro. i’m mako. 24. she/they. in pharmacy school. also work part-time. artist. writer. but never both at the same time because i’m pea-brained and i can only focus on one thing at a time. yet somehow i still have hundreds of unfinished wips in the backburner. i mostly write dark fiction in the realm of fantasy and sci-fi and i’m extremely fascinated by the morbid

this blog is mainly to keep track of my wips and serve as a vault of some sort for writing inspo, references, graphics, etc.

i will prob change blog aesthetic a lot lol

[ — P R O J E C T S ]

Sea-strung Pearls : a lonely mermaid who collects treasures and carcasses. an underwater kingdom. hideous and scary deep sea creatures. a colossal ancient sea monster. said monster guides a mermaid down a path of brutality and self-destruction. sailors & shipwrecks. man-eating sirens. maritime folklore. exploration of loneliness from isolation. transformation into a monster. prey becoming predator. you become what you consume (dark fantasy, horror, nano wip)

Carnivore Mouth : a crafty-minded street urchin & a sharp-tongued troublemaker. set in a church orphanage & gothic cathedral. children being lambs for the slaughter. organ harvesting. machiavellianism & duality of human nature. dangerous religious fanaticism. dark rituals and ceremonies worshipping a false god. vampires but not really. forced martyrdom. friendship turns into obsessive codependency. two young orphans navigating diabolical machinations in a holy sanctuary (gothic horror)

A Garden of Fruiting Bodies : 12 dancing princesses retelling. unwavering sisterhood. crazed adoration for each other. each princess has a secret. maidens by day vixens by night. mystical dreams manifested from dark desires. maze gardens & underground labyrinths. nightly adventures. sentient vines trapping people. lakes luring people in. craving the forbidden. repression leading to rebellion and ending in self-discovery (dark fantasy, fairytale)

/ more to be added . . .

[  — L I N K S ]

socials : pinterest

tags : quotes / photography / artworks 

[ edited 10/25/22 ]

I’d love to hear about your original stories! Whatever you wanna share about them ❤️

oh god i have so many😭 most of them are still half-formed and mostly ~vibes~ but i’m gonna count them! to make things simple, im going to refer to them as basic words/phrases because they don’t have titles.

ancient greece story: probably my oldest. i don’t know if you guys have noticed by now, but im a Huge history buff, especially for antiquity. i adore ancient history (notably the greeks, mesopotamians, egyptians, etc). that period of time has an almost mystical quality to it that i love because there are so many unknowns, but ANYWAY! this idea is basically my spin on twelfth night by william shakespeare but in ancient greece (originally conceptualized to be in athens but they were so comedically restrictive of women that i might have to reasses😭). so, a scholastic, noble woman takes the place of her twin brother to pursue an education that’s been banned from her to receive. she’s disguised herself as a boy to do so and ends up forming a connection with a male student she meets there. at some point, he finds out that she’s a woman and takes it upon himself to pursue her. this causes a lot of angst for her. basically, it’s an academic rivals to lovers romcom set in ancient greece lol. idk if it’s too silly for the time period but i’m really intrigued by how romance could happen in a place where gender roles are just So restrictive and absolute.

character names: lysander (25) & elaina (19)

jaws of the lamb: y’all should probably be pretty familiar with this. i think it’s my best idea so far. it was originally conceptualized as an eremika fic (which it might still end up becoming. anyway) but i like the idea of it being it’s own story as well. anyway, it’s the final girl trope but spun as a twisted love story. a young woman meets and unwittingly falls in love with a serial killer who’s been terrorizing their college campus. the format is non-linear, often going from past to present until they both meet in the middle. the present is the aftermath of the killings where the murderer has already been arrested. the past is them falling in love and the grand reveal of the killer’s identity (along with the slashy-horror of a final girl confrontation). i also think of the story as a metaphor for addiction with all of its highs, lows, and periods of intense shame.

characters: christiana | christy (24) & aaron (24)

hot for priest: apologies going forward but i was raised catholic, so. this is what i have written on the doc for the plot: After experiencing the death of her mother, a young woman meets a priest at her old Church that used to be a close childhood friend of hers. Despite her being engaged, things swiftly descend into chaos as they embark on an emotional affair that ruins all of their lives. (ngl i also like this as an everlark fic).

background to this: i’ve read a couple priest romances at this point and been largely dissatisfied with many of them. i know that priests have become like firefighters at this point in that they’re jobs that become fantasy fuel for women, but i’m a little annoyed by how many priest “romances” focus solely on smut instead of romance. i like good smut as much as any other girl, but i often find it hollow if there’s not a story/relationship that i’m really rooting for. i also think a lot of writers forsake the inevitable catholic guilt in service of more smut, which is a missed opportunity imo and not even mutually exclusive. i always kind of roll my eyes when we get to the sex and the priest is like some kind of kinky dominant who makes a round last five hours and doesn’t care that he broke one of the most sacred vows of his job, which is to Not fuck. catholic guilt and shame is very fun for me to think about conceptually, so i’m a little bummed it’s not used more. this story is ALL catholic guilt and romance. this is also why fleabag is one of my favorite shows. it doesn’t shy away from the conflict of a man choosing between god and love. the thorn birds is also great in this respect.

characters: naomi (28) & peter (31).

death’s the lover: NOT an original story but i did come up with original names if i ever fixed the story up enough to publish.

characters: hina antanova (22) & ilya kaverin (22)

(i even came up with different physical descriptions for them lol).

thank you for this question! i love explaining this stuff. please feel free to ask me about any of them!

The website Closer to Van Eyck lets you zoom all the way in on Jan & Hubert Van Eyck’s Adoration of the Mystic Lamb altarpiece in Ghent, which is presently being restored (it’s a bit of a work in progress).

Of course, it’s an altarpiece, so the religious iconography is quite literally front and centre. But I rarely look at those bits.

Because there’s a whole world to explore in the details.

these are a few of my favourite bits.

This is the birth of landscape painting right here. In the backgrounds of pious Northern Renaissance pictures of saints.

“The Lamb has since regained Ghent Cathedral. It is kept in another chapel, not the one for which it had been designed. It no longer serves the liturgy. It can no longer move its wings. The angel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary turn their backs on each other, fifteen feet apart. We can admire it forever open, behind bulletproof glass. Its utilization as a tourist attraction requires that it hold its pose. According to statistics, The Lamb is the second-most-visited painting, after the Mona Lisa. If the evil of our times is the derealization of our presence in the world by the virtual and by generalized tourism, then that prophetic law applies once again: what happens to the Altarpiece is a sign of what happens to us. And this display case is, without a doubt, not the least of its proofs.”

— Fabrice Hadjadj: The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb

MWW Artist of the Day (5/15/23) Jan Van Eyck (Flemish, c. 1390-1441) Adoration of the Mystic Lamb: The Ghent Altarpiece (1432) Oil on panel, 134.3 x 237.5 cm. Saint Bavo Cathedral, Ghent

The Ghent Altarpiece or Adoration of the Mystic Lamb is a very large and complex Early Flemish polyptych panel painting which is considered to be one of Belgium's masterpieces and one of the world's treasures.  The center panel has as its centerpiece an altar on which a sacrificial lamb is positioned placed in a verdant meadow, while the foreground shows a fountain. Five distinct groups of figures surround altar and fountain. In the mid-ground two further groups figures are seen gathering; the dove of the Holy Spirit is above. The meadow is framed by trees and bushes; with the spires of Jerusalem visible in the background. Dhanens says the panel shows "a magnificent display of unequaled color, a rich panorama of late medieval art and the contemporary world-view."

(Wikipedia extract)

Van Eyck is one of the featured artists in this MWW exhibit/gallery: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.419007544871287&type=3