The lustre of life
THE biggest ever exhibition of paintings by Jan van Eyck, which recently opened in the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent, gets off to a slow start. You have to wade through five rooms of introductory exhibits and an explanatory video before you see an original van Eyck. When you finally clap eyes on the dazzling depiction of Adam from his Ghent Altarpiece, however, I guarantee you will stop in your tracks.
Adam stands nearly life-sized, a mane of dark, curly hair scraped back from his temples,
