THE WASHINGTON POST By Sebastian Smee
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Jan van Eyck’s “Crucifixion” and “Last Judgment” panels, on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
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This two-part painting by the incomparable Jan van Eyck is like black metal music emanating from a bouquet of flowers. A message of love and redemption underwritten by a thudding bass note of terror. Of course, Christian imagery often hits such notes. But van Eyck’s “Crucifixion” and “Last Judgment” panels, on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, take this diametrical effect to an astonishing level of visual intensity. The “message of love,” on the left panel, takes the form of several men hung on crosses, which I concede is not quite the same as a bouquet of flowers. [
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