altarpieces

(noun)

a picture or relief representing a religious subject and suspended in a frame behind the altar of a church. The altarpiece is often made up of two or more separate panels created using a technique known as panel painting.

Related Terms

Examples of altarpieces in the following topics:

  • Venice

    • Applying this approach in his San Zaccaria Altarpiece (1505), the high viewpoint, the uncluttered and interconnected figures arranged in space, and the subtle gestures all combine to form a tranquil yet majestic image .
    • Antonello's San Cassiano Altarpiece especially influenced Venetian painters, as it was one of the first of the large compositions in the sacra conversazione format which was perfected by Giovanni Bellini .

  • Flemish Painting in the Northern Renaissance

    • The majority of this work was presented as either panels, single altarpieces, or more complex altarpieces, which were usually in the form of diptychs or polyptychs.
    • One of his best known works, the Merode Altarpiece, is a triptych that depicts an Annunciation Scene.
    • While van Eyck completed many famous paintings, perhaps his most famous is the Ghent Altarpiece, a commissioned polyptych from around 1432.
    • Highly successful in his lifetime, his surviving works are mainly religious triptychs, altarpieces, and commissioned portraits.
    • The Ghent Altarpiece, a commissioned polyptych from around 1432, is perhaps van Eyck's most famous work.

  • German Painting in the Northern Renaissance

    • However, his Isenheim Altarpiece (1512-1516), produced in collaboration with Niclaus of Haguenau, has been widely regarded as the greatest German Renaissance painting since it was restored to critical attention in the nineteenth century.
    • In its closed form, the Isenheim Altarpiece depicts an emaciated Christ whose skin bears many dark spots.
    • Not surprisingly, Grünewald produced the altarpiece for a chapel in a infirmary that treated patients with a variety of diseases, including ergotism and isolated remaining strains of the plague.

  • Living in Europe

    • It was not until the Late Period, when large carved altarpieces and reredos, usually in painted and gilded wood, became an important focus in many churches.
    • The central panel of Duccio's huge Maestà altarpiece for Siena Cathedral.

  • Spanish Painting in the Northern Renaissance

    • El Greco's preference for exceptionally tall and slender figures and elongated compositions, which served both his expressive purposes and aesthetic principles, led him to disregard the laws of nature and elongate his compositions to ever greater extents, particularly when they were destined for altarpieces.
    • This is one of the most famous altarpieces by El Greco.
    • His altarpieces are renowned for their dynamic compositions and startling innovations.

  • Switzerland

    • Among Switzerland's outstanding artists are Konrad Witz (circa. 1400 - 1456), whose 1444 panel, The Miraculous Draft of Fishes (a portion of a lot altarpiece, ) is credited with being the earliest extant faithful portrayal of a landscape in European art history, being based on observation of real topographical features.
    • Originally part of a now dismantled altarpiece known as Peter's Altar Table, the panel depicts the "miraculous catch of 153 fish" as reported in the Gospel of John and shows a scene of the disciples, who had been fishing at the edge of a lake, recognizing the stranger who had called out to them from the shore as the resurrected Jesus.

  • Sienna: Painting

    • The altarpiece Maestà (1308-1310, ) is one of his great works.
    • One planel of Duccio's multi-painting altarpiece in Sienna, an important example of the Sienese school of painting.

  • Manuscript Printing

    • Two smaller altarpieces are also attributed to him.
    • The Virgin of Mercy, also known as the Cadard Altarpiece after the donor, uses a motif that is most often found in Italian art, and was developed by Simone Martini a century earlier .

  • Panel Painting

    • By the 15th century, along with the increased wealth of Europe, the appearance of humanism, and a changing attitude about the function of art and patronage, panel painting moved away from altarpieces and religious subjects.
    • Many such works have now been detached and hung framed on walls in museums, and many double-sided wings of altarpieces have been sawed into two one-sided panels.

  • Italian Gothic Painting

    • The tempera altarpieces of Fra Angelico bridge the gap between the International Gothic and Renaissance styles of painting, making use of Gothic elaboration, gold leaf, and brilliant color.
    • The Maestà of the Siena Cathedral is a painted altarpiece composed of many individual paintings.