In art a predella (plural predelle) is the lowest part of an
altarpiece
An altarpiece is a painting or sculpture, including relief, of religious subject matter made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting or sculpture, ...
, 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 often (especially in earlier examples), a
polyptych or multipanel altarpiece. In late medieval and
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...
altarpieces, where the main panel consisted of a scene with large figures, it was normal to include a predella below with a number of small-scale narrative paintings depicting events from the life of the dedicatee, whether the
''Life of Christ'', the ''
Life of the Virgin'' or a
saint
In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...
. Typically there would be three to five small scenes, in a horizontal format. Sometimes a single space shows different scenes in
continuous representation.
They are significant in
art history
Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history.
Tradit ...
, as the artist had more freedom from
iconographic conventions than in the main panel as they could only be seen from close up. As the main panels themselves became larger and more dramatic, predellas fell from use around 1510-20 in the
High Renaissance
In art history, the High Renaissance was a short period of the most exceptional artistic production in the Italian states, particularly Rome, capital of the Papal States, and in Florence, during the Italian Renaissance. Most art historians stat ...
, although older or more conservative painters continued to use them, for example
Luca Signorelli, by then in his 70s, in about 1521. In this case he is thought to have only done the
underdrawing for the main scene, leaving the painting to his workshop assistants. But he is thought to have painted the predella scenes himself.
They had fallen out of fashion in Italy by the mid 16th century, but continued for a while further north. As altarpieces reached the art market from the 18th century onwards, the predella scenes (and other smaller sections) were often detached and sold separately, in effect as
cabinet painting
A cabinet painting (or cabinet picture) is a small painting, typically no larger than in either dimension, but often much smaller. The term is especially used for paintings that show full-length figures or landscapes at a small scale, rather th ...
s, and they are now often spread across several museum collections, with their origin often uncertain. Reuniting, at least conceptually, predella panels with the rest of their original settings gave 20th-century art historians a large task, which continues into the 21st century.
More generally, and not usually in the English language, a predella is an altar-step, a shelf above and behind an altar, or a piece of furniture with a lower part to kneel on, for prayer, and often a higher part to support the arms. In English the French term
prie-dieu is normally used for this. ''Predel'' or ''pretel'', was
Langobardic for "a low wooden platform that serves as a basis in a piece of furniture". In English this step is referred to as a
gradin, which may include a predella in it. A predella is also the lower part of a
stained-glass window.
Similar small reliefs are sometimes placed under a larger piece of sculpture.
Donatello
Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi ( – 13 December 1466), known mononymously as Donatello (; ), was an Italian Renaissance sculpture, Italian sculptor of the Renaissance period. Born in Republic of Florence, Florence, he studied classical sc ...
placed a narrow scene of ''
Saint George Freeing the Princess'' on the base of his
''Saint George'' for
Orsanmichele.
Examples
Examples of predellas include:
*
Duccio
Duccio di Buoninsegna ( , ; – ), commonly known as just Duccio, was an Italian painter active in Siena, Tuscany, in the late 13th and early 14th century. He was hired throughout his life to complete many important works in government and religi ...
– the predella of his ''
Maestà'' – one of the earliest predellas.
*
Lorenzo Monaco – ''Incidents in the Life of Saint Benedict''
()
*
Luca Signorelli – ''
The Adoration of the Shepherds'' ()
*
Andrea Mantegna
Andrea Mantegna (, ; ; September 13, 1506) was an Italian Renaissance painter, a student of Ancient Rome, Roman archeology, and son-in-law of Jacopo Bellini.
Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with Perspective (graphical), pe ...
– ''
San Zeno Altarpiece'' (1459)
*
Stanley Spencer
Sir Stanley Spencer, CBE Royal Academy of Arts, RA (30 June 1891 – 14 December 1959) was an English painter. Shortly after leaving the Slade School of Art, Spencer became well known for his paintings depicting Biblical scenes occurring as if ...
–
Sandham Memorial Chapel,
Burghclere, Hants.
* Pre-Raphaelite
Dante Rossetti revisited the predella in his second
Beata Beatrix (1871-1872).
*
Leigh Behnke – a 20th-century realist, she has made use of the predella format in numerous works (c. 1981–2019)
Notes
References
*
Lucie-Smith, Edward, ''The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Art Terms'', 2003 (2nd edn), Thames & Hudson, World of Art series,
*Osborne, Harold (ed), ''The Oxford Companion to Art'', 1970, OUP,
External links
*
{{Authority control
Altarpieces