![\"Paint](\"https:\/\/portlandartmuseum.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Ghissi_Altarpiece.jpeg\")
During the 19th or early 20th century, the altarpiece was dismantled and sawed apart because individual panels could be sold more lucratively to art dealers and collectors. In time, all of the known elements entered U.S. museums. Portland\u2019s painting and three panels in the North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) were the gifts of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation. Three additional panels are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the central Crucifixion <\/em>is in the Art Institute of Chicago. After more than a century of separation, the paintings are now reunited in this exhibition, first displayed at NCMA last fall, that retells the story of this Early Renaissance masterwork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because the ninth painting has never been found, Dutch conservation specialist Charlotte Caspers was employed to re-create it using 14th-century materials and techniques. Caspers worked with NCMA Curator of European Art David Steel and Chief Conservator William Brown to determine the probable subject, composition, coloring, and other details; then she created the panel with the same type of pigments and gilding used by Ghissi 650 years ago. The exhibition includes a video of the process along with an extensive display documenting all of the pigments and other materials used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The bright, gleaming new panel would look out of place alongside works that had aged for centuries, so Duke University mathematicians developed algorithms to age Caspers\u2019s work digitally using the crack patterns and faded colors of the original panels as a guide. A photograph of the virtually aged ninth panel will be installed to complete the St. John Altarpiece<\/em>. The Duke team also used Casper\u2019s panel to calculate algorithms to reverse the effect of aging on the original panels. The resulting images will be displayed, along with Casper\u2019s panel, to give visitors an impression of the altarpiece as it would have looked in the 14th century. Videos explaining the work of the mathematicians will be available in the gallery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was a true collaboration between conservators, curators, and mathematicians,\u201d says Steel. \u201cEveryone learned from each other\u2019s research, and it resulted in this fascinating exhibition that combines art history, mathematics, and technology.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Organized by the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, North Carolina. Curated in Portland by Dawson Carr, Ph.D., The Janet and Richard Geary Curator of European Art.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Saint John Altarpiece follows the form of one type of fourteenth-century altarpiece, with a large central image flanked by smaller narrative scenes. The center panel shows the Crucifixion<\/em> with the young John the Evangelist looking out to the viewer on the right. While the story of the Crucifixion is told in the Gospel of John, the source for the other episodes was The<\/em> Golden Legend<\/em> (Legenda sanctorum)<\/em>, a popular collection of stories about the major saints compiled in the thirteenth century by Jacobus de Voragine, a priest. Accounts of each scene are available below. Comparison of these texts with the paintings in the Saint John Altarpiece reveals Ghissi\u2019s gifts as a master storyteller in the burgeoning Renaissance tradition of clear, human-centered narrative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Saint John is depicted at right, looking out to the viewer. Younger and without a beard, he wears the same blue and pink robes as he does in the rest of the altarpiece. The widow kneeling beside him likely commissioned the altarpiece, indicating that Saint John was either her patron saint or the patron saint of the chapel. The Crucifixion precedes Saint John\u2019s story in The Golden Legend<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n John returned to Ephesus with honor, and the crowds ran out to meet him, crying: \u201cBlessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!\u201d As he entered the city, a woman named Drusiana, who had been a dear friend of his and has looked forward more than anyone to his return, was being carried out for burial. This woman\u2019s kinsmen, and the widows and orphans of Ephesus, said to Saint John: \u201cHere we are about to bury Drusiana, who, following your directions, nourished all of us with the word of God. Yearning for your return she used to say: \u2018Ah, if only I could see the apostle of God once more before I die!\u2019 And now you have come back, and she was not able to see you.\u201d John thereupon ordered them to set down the bier and unbind the body, and said: \u201cDrusiana, may my Lord Jesus Christ raise you to life! Arise, go to your house and prepare food for me!\u201d Drusiana got up and went straight to her house as the apostle had commanded, and it seemed to her that she had awakened from sleep, not from death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The day after the apostle arrived in Ephesus, a philosopher named Crato called the people together in the public square to show them how they should despise the world. He had ordered two young men, brothers and very rich, to sell their entire patrimony, to buy the most priceless gems with the proceeds, and to smash them to bits while everybody watched. The apostle, however, happened to be passing, and he called the philosopher and denounced this sort of contempt of the world, citing three reasons. For one thing it wins the praise of men but is condemned by divine judgment. For another, such contempt cures no vices and therefore is worthless, as any medicine that never cures a disease is said to be worthless. Thirdly, contempt of riches is meritorious only when they are given away to the poor, as the Lord said to the rich young man: \u201cIf you wish to be perfect, go and sell all you have and give to the poor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hearing this, Crato replied: \u201cIf your master is truly God, and if it is his will that these gems should benefit the poor, then you put them together again, thus winning glory for him as I have won the applause of men.\u201d Saint John gathered the fragments of the gems in his hand and prayed; and the stones were restored to their former shape. At this the philosopher and the two young men believed, and they sold the gems and gave the money to the poor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Their example induced two other young highborn young men to sell everything they owned and give the proceeds to the poor, and they became the apostle\u2019s followers. But one day they saw their former slaves flaunting elegant and costly raiment while they themselves had but one cloak between them, and they began to have regrets. Saint John saw this in their gloomy expression, so he had some sticks and pebbles brought to him from the seashore, and turned them into gold and precious stones. Then he sent the youths to show their new possessions to all the goldsmiths and jewelers, and they came back a week later to tell him that those experts had never seen gold so pure or gems so fine. The apostle said to them: \u201cGo and buy back the lands you sold! Since you have lost the treasures of heaven, flourish, but only to wither; be rich for a time, but only to be beggars for eternity!\u201d He then went on to speak against riches, enumerating six reasons that should deter us from an inordinate desire for wealth. The first is in Scripture, and he told the story of the gluttonous rich man, whom God rejected, and the poor man Lazarus, whom God rewarded. The second comes from nature itself: man is born naked and without wealth, and he dies without wealth. The third is seen in creation: just as the sun, the moon, and the stars, the rains and the air, are common to all and their benefits shared by all, so among men everything should be held in common. The next reason is fortune itself. The rich man is the slave of his money; he does not possess it, it possesses him; and he is the slave of the devil, because the Gospel says that the lover of money is a slave of mammon. Fifth comes care and worry: the rich worry day and night about how to get more and how to keep what they have. Sixth and last, he showed that wealth involves the risk of loss. In the acquisition of riches there lies a twofold evil: it leads to swollen pride in the present life and to eternal damnation in the next; and for those doomed to damnation there is a double loss \u2013 of divine grace at present and of eternal glory in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While Saint John was carrying on this discourse against riches, a young man who had been married only a month before was carried out for burial. His mother, his widow, and the rest of the mourners came and prostrated themselves at the apostle\u2019s feet, begging him to revive him in the name of God, as he had done for Drusiana. The apostle, after weeping and praying for a long time, raised the dead man to life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The apostle ordered the resurrected man to tell the two disciples already mentioned how great a penalty they had incurred and how much glory they had lost. He did so, speaking at length about the glories of paradise and the pains of hell, which he had seen; and he said: \u201cO wretched men, I saw your angels weeping and the demons gloating over you!\u201d He further told them they had lost eternal palaces built of shining gems, filled with banquets, abounding in delights and lasting joys. He also spoke about the eight pains of hell, which are named in the following verse:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Vermes et tenebrae flagellum frigus et ignis Daemonis adspectus scelerum confusio luctus,<\/p>\n\n\n\n i.e., worms, darkness, the lash, cold, fire, the sight of the devil, remorse for sins, grief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The revived man and the other two then fell at the apostle\u2019s feet and implored him to obtain mercy for them. Saint John replied: \u201cDo penance for thirty days, and during that time pray that the sticks and stones may revert to their former nature.\u201d After this was accomplished, he said to them: \u201cGo and put those things back where you found them.\u201d They did so, and the sticks and stones became again what they had been before. Thereupon the young men received the grace of all the virtues that had been theirs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When Saint John had preached throughout the region of Asia, the idol-worshipers stirred up a riot among the populace, and they dragged him to the temple of Diana and tried to force him to offer sacrifice to the goddess. Then the saint proposed this alternative: if by invoking Diana they overturned the church of Christ, he would offer sacrifice to the idols; but if by invoking Christ he destroyed Diana\u2019s temple, they would believe in Christ. To this proposal the greater number of the people gave their consent. When all had gone out of the building, the apostle prayed, the temple collapsed to the ground, and the statue of Diana was reduced to dust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thereupon the high priest Aristodemus incited a still greater commotion among the people, and two parties were at the point of coming to blows. The apostle asked the priest: \u201cWhat do you want me to do to restore order?\u201d He answered: \u201cIf you want me to believe in your God, I will give you poison to drink. If it does you no harm, it will be clear that your master is the true God.\u201d John replied: \u201cDo as you say!\u201d \u201cBut first,\u201d came the answer, \u201cI want you to see it kill some others, to make you fear its power the more.\u201d So Aristodemus hied himself to the proconsul, obtained the release of two criminals condemned to decapitation, and, in the presence of the crowd, gave them the poison. They drank it and fell dead. Then the apostle took the cup, armed himself with the sign of the cross, drained the drink, and suffered no harm; and all present began to praise God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Aristodemus, however, was not yet convinced and said: \u201cIf you can bring the two dead men back to life, I will not hesitate to believe.\u201d The apostle handed him his cloak. \u201cWhy do you give me your cloak?\u201d the other asked. John\u2019s answer: \u201cTo make you think twice and give up your unbelief!\u201d \u201cNo mantle of yours will ever make me believe!\u201d the priest retorted. John said: \u201cGo and spread this cloak over the corpses, and say, \u2018The apostle of Christ has sent me to you, that you may rise in the name of Christ.\u2019\u201d He did as he was bidden, and the dead men arose at once. Then the high priest and the proconsul believed, and the apostle baptized them and their families. At a later time they built a church in honor of Saint John.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Text from: Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend: Readings on the Saints<\/em>, trans. William Granger Ryan, vol. 1 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993), 50-55.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Early Renaissance painters had few dependable pigments to choose from, particularly for bright colors. Some naturally existing pigments were discovered in prehistoric times. Others were invented by early cultures. And a few were first created in the fourteenth century. The original pigments were identified through scientific analysis and comparison to descriptions from contemporary manuscripts. Some were common, plentiful, and literally as cheap as dirt, while others were rare and extraordinarily expensive, nearly as dear as gold. Some are long forgotten, but many are still used by artists today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Between 2012 and 2014, the lost lower right panel of the altarpiece was recreated by Charlotte Caspers, an expert in historical painting reconstruction, in collaboration with Curator of European Art David Steel and Chief Conservator William Brown, both from the North Carolina Museum of Art. They determined the likely subject of the painting, its figural types, and its composition. Deriving figures from those in the other panels and on another painting by Ghissi\u2019s teacher Allegretto Nuzi, Caspers painted a well-reasoned recreation of the lost panel. She used authentic fourteenth-century materials and techniques described in Cennino Cennini\u2019s early fifteenth-century treatise on artistic practice, Il libro dell\u2019arte (The Craftsman\u2019s Handbook)<\/em>. Pigments chosen for the painting were similar to those found in the original Ghissi panels as identified by scientific analysis. The new panel gives an impression of how bright and vivid the altarpiece must have looked when it was first created.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These videos present how a digitally rejuvenated version of the Saint John Altarpiece was created by the Image Processing for Art Investigation (IPAI) group at Duke University. Led by Professor Ingrid Daubechies, a team of mathematicians analyzed high-resolution images of the eight original paintings and the newly recreated panel. Using the new painting\u2019s bright, sparkling appearance and flawless surface as benchmarks, the team developed techniques to renew the original panels\u2019 faded colors and dulled gold, and to detect and remove the network of cracks that occurred as the paintings aged. The images offer an impression of the altarpiece\u2019s dazzling appearance when it was just finished. The IPAI group developed similar image-processing techniques to digitally age the new panel so it would more closely resemble the 650-year-old originals.<\/p>\n\n\n\nStory<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
What’s the story? The Saint John Altarpiece<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
The Crucifixion<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
The Resurrection of Drusiana<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Saint John Reproving the Philosopher Crato<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Acteus and Eugenius Implore Saint John to Restore Their Wealth<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
The Resurrection of Satheus<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Satheus Speaking to Acteus and Eugenius \/ Acteus and Eugenius Repenting before Saint John<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Saint John Causes a Pagan Temple to Collapse<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Saint John Drinking from the Poisoned Cup<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Saint John Baptizing Aristodemus<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nProcess<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Pigments used in the Saint John Altarpiece<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Recreating the lost panel<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
How the altarpiece would have looked brand new<\/h4>\n\n\n\n