© Sint-Baafskathedraal Gent – www.artinflanders.be – Cedric Verhelst
© Sint-Baafskathedraal Gent – www.artinflanders.be – Cedric Verhelst
Belgium
Ghent Altarpiece
Monitoring for a Masterpiece of European Art
The Ghent Altarpiece is a monument for the European Art History and a great example of the fascinating complexity and depth of conservation work. After many years of restoration, several panels of the famous polyptych painted by the Van Eyck brothers are back in the St Bavo’s chapel.
A dedicated team at work
The Altarpiece is now given all the attention and care in terms of preventive conservation inside a display case. Charp is honoured to have been given the opportunity to participate in the efforts to safeguard this important relic. The painting's conservation team is made up of different stakeholders, all invested in keeping the Altarpiece safe. Following the return to the chapel, a display case with active climate control was installed to keep humidity and temperature levels stable. However, such active climate control does not exclude the eventuality of a sudden technical breakdown, in which case temperature and humidity levels can vary considerably in a short period of time.
Sharing responsibility and preventing damage
Our software, fed by real-time data, enables the staff to respond quickly to system failures, such as the breakdown of a cooling system. Moreover, the professionals and experts involved expressed the wish to exchange information about the conditions inside the display case and share analyses in a simple, efficient way.
Result
Since the installation, the alerts issued by the CHARP software have enabled the conservation team to swiftly respond to incorrect temperature and humidity levels. Successively, members of the team are notified via mail or sms, until a member confirms he/she is taking care of the issue. If no one responds within the set response time, the notification is escalated to a control room. To avoid alert fatigue, notifications are only sent out when needed, or can be toggled off, for maintenance works. We have been pleased to see that concrete steps can be taken with the timely and targeted use of our monitoring system.
Special thanks for the exceptional follow-up. Always satisfied about the collaboration with Charp