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Recent research has clarified many aspects of the pre-Tridentine mendicant church interior, notably the importance of tramezzo rood screens, the elevated display of large-scale painted panels and – the focus of the present book – the location of choir precincts. It has, however, also revealed the complexity and diversity of liturgical furniture and spatial arrangements. This degree of flexibility cautions against reading Renaissance church interiors in crudely functional terms. The introduction of apsidal choir precincts or so-called “retro-choirs”, once regarded as a fundamental characteristic of Tridentine rearrangements, is now understood as an extended process responding to a number of distinct factors. This paper examines some of the earliest evidence for mendicant retro-choirs associated with Franciscan churches in Umbria, stretching back into the thirteenth century. I first highlighted this anomalous phenomenon in an article published in 2001 in the Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes: I can now introduce additional archival material to both consolidate and nuance those findings. The ambiguous case of Sansepolcro – in the modern region of Tuscany but falling within the medieval Franciscan province of Umbria – suggests that the adoption of the retro-choir respected the Order’s provincial boundaries. Despite sharing an identical liturgical framework, friars in the Tuscan and Umbrian provinces developed very different modes for arranging their church interiors. These differences are reflected in both the architecture of the churches and the artworks commissioned for them. This paper reassesses the evidence for provincialism in Franciscan church configuration in central Italy, asks how this was possible, and considers what such distinctions might have signified for a contemporary audience.

This paper presents a material study of the altarpiece in the chapel at Křivoklat (Purglitz) Castle called Křivoklat Ark (around 1480–1490), located in Central Bohemia, Czech Republic. The Křivoklat Altarpiece is one of the most important works of Jagiellonian courtly art in Bohemia. It is decorated with polychrome sculptures and panel paintings. An initial investigation of the gilded and silvered parts of the paintings, sculptures and architectural decor of the altarpiece was undertaken using a portable X-ray fluorescence analyser. Not only the expected metallic elements gold and silver were identified, but also bismuth. This surprising result led on to a complex study of the altarpiece, focused on the layered structure and the method by which bismuth was used the paint layers under the metal-coated areas (under the gold and silver plating). The coating technique using bismuth powder in the Late Gothic period has already been described in scientific publications. However, our paper deals with a rare technique, i.e. the use of powdered bismuth in red bole and its plating with gold and silver leaf. Several micro-samples were therefore taken from carefully selected parts of the altarpiece. Only a minimum amount of sample material was taken, due to the significance of altarpiece. The samples were then analyzed with optical and electron microscopy, EDS analysis, micro-XRF, and other methods. The quantitative element mapping on the cross-section of a micro-sample with gilding showed distributions of several elements (Bi, Au, Fe, Al, Ca); this means that the presence of bismuth grains in the red layer under the gilding leaf was proven. Interdisciplinary cooperation and a combination of microscopic and spectral methods have enabled us to describe this unique late Gothic gilding technique, in which metallic bismuth was intentionally used to affect the color scheme of the coated areas in paintings and polychrome sculptures.

This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license., The mudéjar church of Santa María (Ateca) is valuable for its architecture and the altarpiece contained inside. Ateca is a village with continental climate characterized by cold winters and hot summers. In this paper we are interested in analysing the effect of temperature and relative humidity (RH) changes produced by the heating system on the altarpiece. Therefore, a monitoring system of 15 temperature and 15 relative humidity sensors was installed with a recording frequency of a data point per minute. The main contribution of this paper is the quantitative study of the effect of the heating system on the thermo-hygrometric parameters using statistical techniques such as ANOVA, mean daily trajectories or bivariate plots, and the proposal of an innovative dynamic contour plot. As results, the heating system produces a substantial increase (decrease) of temperature (RH) causing an hourly variation of these physical parameters detrimental to the conservation of the altarpiece, especially in its higher areas. © 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland., This work was partially supported by the Spanish Government (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación) under projects HAR2010-21944-C02-01 and HAR2010-21944-C02-02.

The research results presented in this paper are part of a larger study on the materials and techniques used in polychrome altarpieces of gilded woodcarving decoration ("talha dourada") in Portugal. The paper focuses on a narrative Portuguese Altarpiece from Mir- anda do Douro, considered one of the masterpieces of "talha dourada" among all the retables of the Iberian Peninsula in XVII th and XVIII th centuries. Although on the Portuguese territory, the altarpiece was made by artists from the Royal Spanish school of Valladolid, under a mannerist style. Thus the study opens a window on the artists' circulation between Spain and Portugal and influences of the Spanish schools in Baroque epoch on the Portuguese "talha". During its history this altarpiece underwent several transformations and extensive conservation treatments in 1989. On this occasion more than 50 samples were collected and analyzed using an interdiscipli- nary multi-technique methodology. 27 of these samples are chosen for this study in order to investigate the chromatic palette, the materials and techniques used in the polychromy of the retable. A novel protocol of investigation using different conventional and unconventional ana- lytical techniques (OM 1 fluorescent staining tests on cross-sections, Raman microscopy, XRD, XRF, X-ray micro-CT, SEM-EDX, MALDI-TOF-MS and LC-MS/MS) was established within an innovative research project (http://sites.fct.unl.pt/gilt-teller/) and applied on these samples. This protocol is necessary to confirm the results obtained in the 1989 campaign and to have further insight into the gilding and polychrome decoration materials and techniques and the additional information reported in the historical documents. The material and technical history of this im- portant altarpiece will be thus re-documented from a scientific perspective, meant to confirm and bring new information on the decorative technique used in the creation of this complex Por- tuguese monument. Microsc. Res. Tech. 76:733-743, 2013. V C 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The paper considers the contribution that the history of science can make to conservation science and technical art history. In particular, it uses scientific texts from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries to interpret the significance of materials on the Westminster Retable, c.1260. This prestigious altarpiece was decorated with imitation gems, and the paper explores the intellectual context in which it was conceived and created.

The 12th-century church on the island of Kinn, off the west coast of Norway, still houses parts of a late-medieval triptych. The central section of the triptych was later built into an altarpiece from 1644, and three female sculptures from the triptych are still kept in the church. Since 1936 it has been suggested that the Kinn triptych belonged to a group of late-medieval triptychs kept in various churches along the coast and named the Leka group. The aim of the work presented in this paper is to re-examine that suggestion and the provenance of the triptych. A detailed study of the three sculptures and the remains of the central section has allowed a new assessment of the work. A dendrochronological examination of parts of the central section and one sculpture has been of vital importance for the study. Olstad’s suggestion, supported by Leeuwenberg, that the Kinn triptych differs from the rest of the Leka group is confirmed by the dendrochronological analysis. We propose that the provenance of the triptych should be revised. It seems more likely that this work did not originate in the northern Netherlands, but rather came from a northern-German workshop. Through a reassessment of all the dendrochronological data from the socalled Leka group, including data collected in 2015 from the triptychs in Leka, Røst, Ørsta og Hadsel churches, the origin of the oak for these works is also now clearer.

En este artículo se aborda la historia del primitivo retablo pétreo de la Virgen de la Antigua de la catedral de Sevilla, punto de partida del actual de Pedro Duque Cornejo y conocido a través de una estampa de Pedro Rodríguez, del cual, gracias a una novedosa documentación, damos a conocer que fue financiado con limosnas de los capitulares catedralicios a partir de 1630, diseñado probablemente por Miguel de Zumárraga y levantado definitivamente entre 1631 y 1632. This paper presents the history of the primitive stone altarpiece representing the Virgen de la Antigua in the Seville Cathedral, the starting point of the current version by Pedro Duque Cornejo and identified through an engraving by Pedro Rodríguez. Thanks to innovative documentation, we have been able to determine that it was financed by alms from the cathedral chapter from 1630, probably designed by Miguel de Zumárraga and permanently erected between 1631 and 1632.

An exhaustive analysis of the very last words drafted by one of the most powerful noblewomen of the fifteenth century, Duchess Aldonza de Mendoza (d. 1435), reveals that her project to transform the Hieronymite monastery of Lupiana into a pantheon might have been connected to the birth of a child outside her marriage, more precisely, to a son who had remained hidden until the moment of Aldonza’s death. The aim of this study is to offer a new reading of the Duchess’s mausoleum, a pantheon planned to showcase her lineage by focusing exclusively on the female line. Further, this paper rediscovers two panels of the lost main altarpiece of the monastery of Lupiana commissioned by Aldonza de Mendoza and proposes an allegorical portrait of the Duchess represented as the wife of Pontius Pilate. Aldonza’s project reveals itself as crucial for understanding the self-fashioning mechanisms employed by late medieval women, as well as the ways in which visual culture was used in the shaping of female memorial programmes.

The paper aims at clarifying the meanings of early Italian painted polyptychs. The rationale behind the genesis of this particular type of altarpiece, which spread rapidly in the 1260s–1320s and became very popular in the churches of the Dominicans and Franciscans, has received only partial explanation in existing scholarship. A new perspective in its study can be advanced through consideration of the mission of early polyptychs in the context of eschatological expectations of the era, which were largely defined by the prophecies of Joachim of Flores. These expectations shaped the mendicant orders’ narratives of their own missions, which found explicit expression in their art only much later. By confronting the early polyptych with the later orders’ pieces reflecting their identity, the author argues that early mendicant altarpieces served primarily as visual representations of each order’s mission, which largely determined their popularity.

espanolEn este trabajo se analizan los retablos que poseyo la hermandad del Senor de la Santa Vera Cruz de la localidad de Marchena. Se define el actual retablo como obra de Tomas Guisado el Joven y se hace un analisis de su evolucion estilistica. El proceso de restauracion a que se vio sometido el retablo a fines del ano 2010 permitio hacer su analisis y estudio historico-artistico. EnglishThis paper analyzes the altarpieces that the Brotherhood of the Lord of the Holy Vera Cruz in the town of Marchena have possessed. The current altarpiece is defined as the work of Tomas Gui-sado el Joven and an analysis of his stylistic evolution is made. The restoration process to which the altarpiece was subjected at the end of 2010 allowed to make its analysis and historical-artistic study.

“The Lord’s Transfiguration” icon painted by Grigore Ranite belongs to a collection of altarpiece icons from the Ethnographic Museum of Transylvania. The aim of this paper is to present the results...

The most tragic emotions were perceived usually as antisocial in the Middle Ages. There was often the link between the emotions and the seven dead sins. However, the perception of these emotions could change under the influence of the situation. Sometimes tragic emotions could become logical or even useful for an individual. This aspect in the visualization of such feelings drew the spectator‘s attention especially in the Renaissance altarpieces. That is worthy to consider some fundamental emotions such as anger, sorrow, fear and so on in the context of the German and Netherlandish masters ‘works of the 15th – early 16th centuries. The main topics of the considered masterpieces are the Passion of Christ and the Last Judgment. The interdisciplinary nature of this paper allows to broaden the understanding of how compositional techniques, the color choice and even the format of the picture affect the visualization of emotions in religious works. Some Netherlandish and German masters had a narrative aim creating a scene from the cycle of the Passion of Christ, others – an expressive-symbolic aim. However, the analysis of the works of the 15th – 16th centuries’ artists considering the psychology of emotions provides new opportunities for understanding the artistic and social context of the existence of the altarpiece.

This paper discusses how interpretation of an artwork can contribute to intensifying heritage tourism experiences, based on an examination of the altarpiece of the former convent of Santo António do Carmo of Olinda, which was designed to promote Catholic triumphalism. The objective is to present the first level of artwork interpretation and highlight the importance of disseminating information about works of art, thereby providing a fuller understanding of their potential role in enhancing heritage tourism’s value. This qualitative, exploratory study included on-site visits and documentary research on the altar’s interpretation. The results suggest that interpretation about artistic objects is important, including key elements such as artistic movements (i.e. chronology), materials used, functions, artwork commissions, artistic affiliations and a brief corresponding description. The findings support the conclusion that interpretation makes tourist attractions more appealing and contributes to tourism development, as well as promoting interest in heritage and strengthening its value.

The purpose of this paper is to show the argument-establishing features of a Renaissance altarpiece. Looking to Panofsky’s seminal studies and to more recent contributions, this essay shows how in a special environment like the Florentine pre-Renaissance, people could easily relate to the evocative and contrastive potential of images. In the Santa Lucia de’ Magnoli Altarpiece painted by Domenico Veneziano we see an interesting dialogue between the main piece and the predella panels. This juxtaposition can be formalized into a basic argumentative text.

espanolEste articulo da a conocer las intervenciones del pintor tinerfeno Antonio Sanchez Gonzalez en la iglesia del Salvador de Madrid, donde realizo una nueva decoracion al fresco para las pechinas del crucero y diseno el retablo mayor. Ademas de recordar su trayectoria, analiza la situacion del maestro antes de la Guerra de la Independencia (1808) y el pleito que dichos trabajos motivaron en la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, ya que no contaban con la aprobacion de los pintores Gregorio Ferro y Mariano Salvador Maella ni de los arquitectos Juan Pedro Arnal, Juan de Villanueva y Antonio Lopez Aguado, entre otros. EnglishThis paper deals with the works of the painter from Tenerife Antonio Sanchez Gonzalez in the church of El Salvador in Madrid, where he made a new fresco decoration for the pendentives of the transept and designed the main altarpiece. In addition to recalling his carrer, the study analyzes the situation of the artist before the War of Independence (1808) and the lawsuit that these actions motivated in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, where they didn´t have the approval of the painters Gregorio Ferro and Mariano Salvador Maella or the architects Juan Pedro Arnal, Juan de Villanueva and Antonio Lopez Aguado, among others.

El artículo aborda el estudio del escultor y ensamblador sevillano Miguel de Perea Ahumada (1680-ca. 1743), más conocido por ser el maestro del escultor Benito de Hita y Castillo. El hallazgo de nuevas fuentes inéditas y la recopilación de algunas otras dispersas nos permite realizar una primera aproximación biográfica. Asimismo, su figura es analizada en el contexto de la escultura sevillana de la primera mitad del siglo XVIII, donde el creciente protagonismo del taller de Pedro Duque Cornejo acabaría precipitando la marcha de maestros como Perea a otros focos creativos. This paper focuses on the Sevillian sculptor and assembler Miguel de Perea Ahumada (1680-ca. 1743), best known for being the master of the sculptor Benito de Hito y Castillo. A new biographical approach is presented, based on new documentary sources and some news scattered in the bibliography. Furthermore, his figure is analyzed in the context of Sevillian sculpture of the first half of the 18th century, where the raising of the workshop of Pedro Duque Cornejo precipitated the migration of masters such as Perea to other artistic centers. Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad HAR2017-83017P

There are at least twenty-nine Madonna tabernacles from 1150-1350 with one or more wings preserved, most of them in Scandinavia and Spain. These tabernacles housed a sculpture of the Virgin and Child. In the open position, the central sculpture would be revealed, surrounded by scenes from the Incarnation story, depicted in relief, paint, or a combination of both. The aim of this paper is to explore these Madonna tabernacle in its closed position; What decoration and motifs are found on the exteriors? Can a closer examination of the exteriors of these works provide a greater understanding of their function and later development? And, finally, is there a difference between a closed Madonna tabernacle and a closed tabernacle that houses other saints? Most of the surviving tabernacles have wings with monochrome exteriors, often red, but also green and black or a combination of red and green. There are also examples of tabernacles with patterns or foliage. Only six tabernacles have traces of figural decoration on the exterior. Here we find St. Peter and St. Paul, sometimes together with St. John. One tabernacle has the Passion of Christ on the exterior wings. Tabernacles housing saints other than a Madonna figure have also had monochrome exteriors, often red, although several of them, at least in Scandinavia, have lost most of their original color. Only two examples have figural decorations on the exterior and they would probably have had depictions of St. Paul and St. Peter.[1] This leads us to the conclusion that in a closed position there was little that distinguished a Madonna tabernacle from tabernacles housing other saints. Existen al menos veintinueve retablos-tabernáculo marianos del periodo comprendido entre 1150 y 1350 que conservan uno o más de sus paneles de cierre. La mayoría de ellos se encuentran en Escandinavia y en España. Estos retablos albergaban una imagen de la Virgen con el Niño. Cuando se encontraban abiertos, la escultura central se mostraría rodeada por escenas relativas al misterio de la Encarnación, representadas en relieve, en pintura o en una combinación de ambas técnicas. El propósito de este estudio es indagar cómo eran esos retablos-tabernáculo marianos cuando se encontraban cerrados. ¿Qué decoración y motivos se encontraban en su parte exterior? ¿Podría un estudio más profundo de su exterior proporcionarnos un mejor entendimiento de su función y de su desarrollo posterior? Y, por último, ¿existen diferencias entre los tabernáculos cerrados de tipo mariano y los que albergaron otros santos? La mayoría de los tabernáculos que se conservan tienen paneles de cierre con exteriores monócromos, frecuentemente en rojo, pero también en verde, en negro o en una combinación de rojo y de verde. También hay ejemplos de tabernáculos decorados a base de patrones o a base de motivos vegetales. Solo seis retablos-tabernáculo tienen restos de decoración figurativa en el exterior de sus paneles. En ellos encontramos a San Pedro y a San Pablo, acompañados a veces por San Juan. Uno de ellos muestra en el exterior de sus paneles la pasión de Cristo. Los tabernáculos que cobijan la figura de un santo distinto de la Virgen también presentan exteriores monócromos, a menudo rojos, aunque varios de ellos, al menos en Escandinavia, han perdido gran parte de su color original. Solo dos ejemplos presentan decoración figurativa en el exterior y probablemente en su momento tuvieron representaciones de San Pablo y de San Pedro (los dos conservan solo uno de los paneles que cerraban su frente, donde, en su cara exterior, se representa a San Pablo, por lo que San Pedro se encontraría probablemente en el panel perdido, véase el apartado 'Tabernacles housing other saints'). Esto nos lleva a la conclusión de que en posición cerrada había poca diferencia entre un retablo-tabernáculo mariano y aquellos que albergaran otros santos.

En este trabajo se analizan los retablos que poseyó la hermandad del Señor de la Santa Vera Cruz de la localidad de Marchena. Se define el actual retablo como obra de Tomás Guisado el Joven y se hace un análisis de su evolución estilística. El proceso de restauración a que se vio sometido el retablo a fines del año 2010 permitió hacer su análisis y estudio histórico-artístico This paper analyzes the altarpieces that the Brotherhood of the Lord of the Holy Vera Cruz in the town of Marchena have possessed. The current altarpiece is defined as the work of Tomás Guisado el Joven and an analysis of his stylistic evolution is made. The restoration process to which the altarpiece was subjected at the end of 2010 allowed to make its analysis and historical-artistic study

Nikola Lazanic, born on the island of Brac, is the most important late Renaissance sculptor in Croatia. His sculptural opus includes only three signed works. The earliest is a relief stone altarpiece from 1578 with a Madonna with the Child and St Peter and Paul in the church of St Peter in Nerežisce on the island of Brac. From 1581 to 1584, the master was active in Rome, and in 1589 in Dubrovnik, where he produced his two anthological statues, St Blaise and St Jerome, for the old church of the city’s patron saint. Nikola was also a painter, so in 1591 he took an apprentice whom he pledged to teach sculpture and painting for ten years. The last mention of the master is a signed altarpiece painted in 1593 for the Chiesa dei Carmini in Bitonto. This paper focuses on a previously unknown stone bust of Christ with a crown of thorns – Ecce Homo. It is located outside of its original context, in the garden of the parish house in Noventa Padovana, in the eastern suburbs of Padua. The bust bears the master’s signature: NICvs . LASANEVS . F. It is hypothetically dated to the ninth decade of the 16th century, when the master supposedly stayed in Venice and Veneto. Also, the author suggests a possible pictorial model for Lazanic’s work, an engraving based on Titian’s Ecce Homo, printed in Venice in the third quarter of the 16th century.