A winged altarpiece (also ''folding altar'') or winged retable is a special form of altarpiece ( reredos, occasionally

retable A retable is a structure or element placed either on or immediately behind and above the altar or communion table of a church. At the minimum it may be a simple shelf for candles behind an altar, but it can also be a large and elaborate structur ...

), common in Northern and Central Europe, in which the central image, either a painting or

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

sculpture (or some combination of the two) can be hidden by hinged wings. It is called a

triptych A triptych ( ; from the Greek adjective ''τρίπτυχον'' "''triptukhon''" ("three-fold"), from ''tri'', i.e., "three" and ''ptysso'', i.e., "to fold" or ''ptyx'', i.e., "fold") is a work of art (usually a panel painting) that is divided ...

if there are two wings, a pentaptych (but this is rarely used in English) if there are four, or a

polyptych A polyptych ( ; Greek: ''poly-'' "many" and ''ptychē'' "fold") is a painting (usually panel painting) which is divided into sections, or panels. Specifically, a "diptych" is a two-part work of art; a " triptych" is a three-part work; a tetrapt ...

if there are four or more. The technical terms are derived from grc, τρίς: ''trís'' or "triple"; πέντε: ''pénte'' or "five"; πολύς: ''polýs'' or "many"; and πτυχή: ''ptychē'' or "fold, layer". Altar_of_Veit_Stoss,_St

There are often images on both the insides and outsides of the wings, enabling the altarpiece to display completely different views when open and closed. It was usually the custom to keep the wings closed except on Sundays or feast days, although very often the sacristan would open them for tourists at any time for a modest tip. Small winged paintings, usually triptychs, were also owned by the wealthy for private devotions, and services in the house; they had the advantage that the open view was fairly well protected when covered up during travel. The form was especially popular in the later Middle Ages, and during the

Northern Renaissance The Northern Renaissance was the Renaissance that occurred in Europe north of the Alps. From the last years of the 15th century, its Renaissance spread around Europe. Called the Northern Renaissance because it occurred north of the Italian Renais ...

. In the 17th century, Rubens was one of the last major painters to use it. It was never as popular in Italy, where there were many polyptychs, but usually built without hinges, so always "open", even if there were also images on the back, as in the ''Maestà'' by Duccio for

Siena Cathedral Siena Cathedral ( it, Duomo di Siena) is a medieval church in Siena, Italy, dedicated from its earliest days as a Roman Catholic Marian church, and now dedicated to the Assumption of Mary. It was the episcopal seat of the Diocese of Siena, and ...

. Above the retable may be found the crowning or superstructure, pinnacles and flowers of the cross. Relics can be housed below it, in a reliquary in the

predella In art a predella (plural predelle) is the lowest part of an altarpiece, sometimes forming a platform or step, and the painting or sculpture along it, at the bottom of an altarpiece, sometimes with a single much larger main scene above, but oft ...

lying on the

altar stone An altar stone is a piece of natural stone containing relics in a cavity and intended to serve as the essential part of an altar for the celebration of Mass in the Catholic Church. Consecration by a bishop of the same rite was required. In the ...

Examples

* Pacher Altar of St. Wolfgang im Salzkammergut * Kefermarkt Altarpiece in Kefermarkt * Krakow High Altar in St. Mary's Basilica by Veit Stoß. *

Ghent Altarpiece The ''Adoration of the Mystic Lamb'', also called the ''Ghent Altarpiece'' ( nl, De aanbidding van het Lam Gods), is a large and complex 15th-century polyptych altarpiece in St Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium. It was begun around the mid-1420 ...

by Jan van Eyck *

Isenheim Altarpiece The ''Isenheim Altarpiece'' is an altarpiece sculpted and painted by, respectively, the Germans Nikolaus of Haguenau and Matthias Grünewald in 1512–1516. It is on display at the Unterlinden Museum at Colmar, Alsace, in France. It is Grünewal ...

Matthias Grünewald Matthias Grünewald ( – 31 August 1528) was a German Renaissance painter of religious works who ignored Renaissance classicism to continue the style of late medieval Central European art into the 16th century. His first name is also given ...

* Herrenberg Altarpiece,

Staatsgalerie Stuttgart The Staatsgalerie Stuttgart (, "State Gallery") is an art museum in Stuttgart, Germany, it opened in 1843. In 1984, the opening of the Neue Staatsgalerie (''New State Gallery'') designed by James Stirling transformed the once provincial gallery ...

* Antwerp Retable * The largest collection of medieval reredoses in Germany is to be found in St. Anne's Abbey, Lübeck, including the Passion Altarpiece by

Hans Memling Hans Memling (also spelled Memlinc; c. 1430 – 11 August 1494) was a painter active in Flanders, who worked in the tradition of Early Netherlandish painting. He was born in the Middle Rhine region and probably spent his childhood in Mainz. He ...

and the Schonen Altarpiece by

Bernt Notke Bernt Notke (; – before May 1509) was a late Gothic artist, working in the Baltic region. He has been described as one of the foremost artists of his time in northern Europe. Life Very little is known about the life of Bernt Notke. The No ...

* '' The Last Judgment'' by

, Gdańsk * Schwabach Altarpiece in the Church of St. John and St. Martin in

Schwabach Schwabach () is a German city of about 40,000 inhabitants near Nuremberg in the centre of the region of Franconia in the north of Bavaria. The city is an autonomous administrative district (''kreisfreie Stadt''). Schwabach is also the name of th ...

, a high altar from the workshop of Michael Wolgemut * The Altar Wings of Roudníky * Altar of Saint Mary,

Alpirsbach Abbey Alpirsbach Abbey (''Kloster Alpirsbach'') is a former Benedictine monastery and later Protestant seminary located at Alpirsbach in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The monastery was established in the late 11th century and possessed considerable free ...

Literature

* Herbert Schindler: ''The Schnitzaltar. Meisterwerke und Meister in Süddeutschland, Österreich und Südtirol.'' Verlag Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 1978. * Karl-Werner Bachmann, Géza Jászai, Friedrich Kobler, Catheline Périer-D'Ieteren, Barbara Rommé, Norbert Wolf:
Flügelretabel
', in: '' Reallexikon zur Deutschen Kunstgeschichte'', Vol. 9, 2003, , cols. 1450–1536.

References

External links

Website des Kirchspiels Felsberg: Felsberg winged altar
{{Authority control Altars Christian art * Polyptychs

Examples

Literature

See also

References

External links