The "Adoration of the Mystic Lamb" is part of the Ghent Altarpiece, painted app. 1432. The Ghent Altarpiece is
a most concise and beautiful statement of the change from the concept of God as a stern, Medieval judge of mankind to the benevolent Franciscan Father of the human race. The entire altarpiece amplifies this central theme; though man is sinful---symbolized by Adam and Eve---he will be saved because God, in his infinite love, will sacrifice his own son for this purpose. . . . And the realism is so saturated with symbolism that we might almost think of it as a kind of superreality or "surrealism."

---Tansey and Delacroix, Gardner's Art Through The Ages, Sixth Edition.