Ghent Altarpiece Lamb Restoration

About

Ghent Altarpiece Lamb Restoration refers to the artistic restoration of the "Adoration of the Mystic Lamb," painted by Flemish brothers Jan and Hubert Van Eyck in the 15th century. The panel, one of twelve that make up the Ghent Altarpiece, shows the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. The restoration revealed that the artists' originally painted the lamb with a more humanoid face than the more traditional lamb-like face that had been known for centuries and that the lamb-like face had been painted over the original work in the 16th century. The restored lamb's face shocked internet users who joked about it on Twitter.

Origin

On December 24th, 2019, the restored "Adoration of the Mystic Lamb," centerpiece of the Ghent Altarpiece, was returned to St. Bavo's Cathedral in Ghent, Belgium.^[1] The restoration revealed that the titular lamb originally had a humanoid face (comparison shown below).

Spread

The restoration began drawing social media attention following several tweets about the lamb by user @frajds^[2] on January 20th, 2020. His first tweet about the restoration gained over 12,000 retweets and 59,000 likes (shown below, left). This set off a wave of people joking about the restoration. User @goingmedieval^[3] posted a Skull Cow joke about the lamb, gaining over 1,800 retweets and 5,800 likes (shown below, right).

Other popular jokes include a post by @awesomecaboose,^[4] who compared the restoration to Potato Jesus, gaining over 2,400 likes (shown below, left). User @StanBobOP^[5] posted a Drakeposting meme with the restoration, gaining over 300 retweets and 1,400 likes (shown below, right). The jokes were covered in a Twitter Event.^[6]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References