VISITORS to Winchester Cathedral will be transported to a world of fine art through a visiting National Gallery exhibition and a 500-year-old masterpiece.
Three yurt-like pods have been set up in the north transept of the 11th Century cathedral where people can experience a digital reproduction of Jan Gossaert’s Adoration Of The Kings.
A large facsimile of the masterpiece, which depicts the Christian nativity scene, has been installed, and people are taken through a digital tour with sound beamed through headphones.
The exhibition, Sensing The Unseen: Step Into Gossaert’s Adoration has been produced by London’s National Gallery to create an immersive experience of the oil painting that dates back to 1501-15.
It is on tour for the first time, after it ran at the National Gallery for one week before lockdown in December 2020 and then reopened for one month in May 2021.
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Lawrence Chiles, head of digital services at the National Gallery, said he was delighted to see the exhibition back in front of the public and for it to be housed in such an important building.
He said: "It is a wonderfully immersive experience. I am super excited. It is an absolutely wonderful setting, it couldn't be any better.
"It is a very different setting to what it was in at the National Gallery, where it was in a smaller intimate room, this takes it to a different level. The pods really work in this grand setting. The aura and the atmosphere lends itself to what we have done to tell people about the painting."
The exhibition has been designed to increase the amount of time people spend in front of the painting after research showed that the average dwell time per painting at the National Gallery was just 20 seconds.
Through the 14-minute long experience visitors are able to discover and navigate previously unseen elements in forensic detail such as the weave of the fabric, Gossaert’s fingerprint in the green glaze where he blotted it, thistles and dead nettles, hairs sprouting from a wart on a cheek, a tiny pearl, and a hidden angel.
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Alison Evans, the cathedral’s chief operating officer, said: “This is a painting that has come home. It was designed to be displayed in a church, it is an alter piece, this is the way people in the 16th Century understood religion, through art.
"This is the type of exhibition that is open to everyone, you don't need to know anything about painting or art to come and appreciate it,
"The exhibition is a journey that teaches you how to look at the painting."
Dr Gabriele Finaldi, director of the National Gallery, said: “Sensing the Unseen offers an opportunity to immerse yourself in the world of this sensational masterpiece, in the deep and rich story it tells and in the artistry that made it.”
The exhibition opened on January 22 and runs until April 3. Entry is included as part of the cathedral's general admission ticket, but visitors will need to pre-book via the website. Go to winchester-cathedral.org.uk/
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