# The Ghent Altarpiece: Singing Angels \(detail\) [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [EYCK, Jan van]() - Date: 1401-1450 - Technique: Oil on wood ## Commentary The twelfth-century theory concerning the mysticism of the five musical notes \(Charlier de Gerson, Collectorium Super Magnificat\) was well known in the fifteenth century, too, \(it was republished in 1488, in Strasbourg\), and its influence on the singing angels of van Eyck is probable. Their strikingly vivid facial expressions were variously explained by scholars. The proposition that the angels' "grimaces" express the pitch of their tones, in accordance with the contemporary practice of singing in four parts, seems daring. Ervin Panofsky, the outstanding scholar of iconography and of early Netherlandish painting, first called attention to the mysterious role of the number five. According to him, the mimicry of the angels expresses their feelings, specifically the five major emotions reflecting the five major attributes of the Lord: Gaudentia: joy on account of the Lord's greatness \(Magnificus\); Spes: hope for the Lord's generosity \(Largus\); Pietàs: devout love toward the Lord's graciousness \(Pius\); Timor: fear of the Lord's justness \(Iustus\); Dolor: grief, sadness, and repentance before the Lord's mercifulness \(Miserator\). ## Related artworks - [Annunciation]() - [Annunciation]() - [Crucifixion]() - [Diptych]() - [Last Judgment]() - [Madonna and Child at the Fountain]() - [Madonna in the Church \(detail\)]() - [Madonna in the Church]() - [Madonna with the Child Reading]() - [Man in a Turban \(detail\)]() - [Man in a Turban]() - [Portrait of a Goldsmith \(Man with Ring\)]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()