In all of its positions, the Ghent Altarpiece is a vision of the visionary.
The other panels have all survived, although there is some lingering disagreement about whether they are now reassembled in their original configuration, given the many times the altarpiece has been taken apart.
Van Eyck creates a world within the painting as substantial and real as the world outside the painting.
Only one of the original 12 panels 8 of which are part of the hinged shutter apparatus, and therefore painted on both sides , has been lost.
It is uncertain the extent to which he influenced the iconography of the overall work, but he obviously spared no expense.
It is as if the makers of the Wizard of Oz derived their inspiration for a black-and-white Kansas and a technicolor Oz, from Ghent.