Dictionary of Renaissance art

ALTARPIECE

Altarpiece: translation

A painted or sculpted panel that either stands on the altar of a church or hangs above it, its primary function being to serve as visual focus during meditation or prayer. Altarpieces created in Italy during the 14th and 15th centuries often have multiple panels that can be opened and closed, as well aspinnaclesthat imitate the Gothic architectural vocabulary and apredella. An example of this isPietro Lorenzetti'sVirginand Child with Saints,Annunciation,andAssumptionpainted for the Pieve di Santa Maria in Arezzo (1320).The Northern examples of the same period can be quite complicated, and open in a series of stages to reveal the interior scenes, as in, for example,Matthias Grünewald'sIsenheim Altarpiece(fin. 1515; Colmar, Musée d'Unterlinden). These polyptychs, as they are called, were usually painted ingrisaillein the exterior and with brilliant colors in the interior to add a sense of awe when opened during feast days. In Spain, altarpieces are called retables (in Spanish,retablos) and have panels that remain opened and are often contained in heavy sculptural frames. By the 16th and 17th centuries in Italy, these complex formats were rejected in favor of representations on a single field. In the North, they continued for a longer period, withPeter Paul Rubens'Elevation of the Crossfor the Church of St. Walburga in Antwerp (1610-1611), providing an early 17th-century example.
See also San Zeno altarpiece, Verona; St. Lucy altarpiece; Triptych.

  1. altarpiece—Altarpiece translation Altarpiece A picture of some sacred subject painted on the wall or suspended in a frame behind the altar or a group of statuary on the altar dd Ca...Catholic encyclopedia
  2. altarpiece—altarpiece translationSynonyms and related wordsCommunion table abstract abstraction altar altar carpet altar desk altar facing altar of prothesis altar rail altar side a...Moby Thesaurus
  3. altarpiece—[ltpis]запрестольный образ...Англо-русский большой универсальный переводческий словарь
  4. altarpiece—запрестольный образ...Англо-русский дополнительный словарь
  5. altarpiece—n запрестольная перегородка запрестольный образ...Англо-русский словарь Лингвистика-98
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  9. altarpiece—n церк. запрестольний образ....Англо-український словник Балла М.І.
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  12. altarpiece—ltpis n церк. запрестольный образ запрестольная перегородка...Новый большой англо-русский словарь под общим руководством акад. Ю.Д. Апресяна