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Altar of the Last Judgement Giclee Print Weyden, Rogier... 18 in. x 24 in. Buy at AllPosters.com Framed Mounted The earliest altars seem to have been mounds or platforms of unbaked earth or large stones, but these rapidly developed into more ornamental forms. Assyrian altars were of limestone and alabaster, those of the Egyptians were of basalt or polished granite. A Cretan altar found at Cnossus was a slab of black steatite supported by four legs and used as a cover for a sacred stone.
Two types of altar were common in Ancient Greece and Rome. One was placed within the temple before the image of the god and consisted of a small, low platform upon which the worshipper could kneel; the other took the form of a table and was intended for offerings or burnt sacrifices in the open air. It usually stood before the principal entrance and was of marble and generally of modest dimensions. Notable exceptions were the altars of the Temple of Zeus and Athena at Pergamon, built by Eumenes II (c. 200 B.C.) and the heroic altar of Augustan Peace in Rome (dedicated in 9 B.C.), which are huge architectural structures richly ornamented with sculpture.
The altar had become an established feature of Christian meeting places by the 3rd century. In England and in Western Europe wooden altars were usual until the 11th century, although stone and marble were common in Mediterranean countries as early as the 4th century. There are records of gold and silver coverings for altars, an extant example of which is that given in A. D. 835 by Archbishop Engelbert to S. Ambrogio, Milan. It covers the four vertical sides of the altar and is made of sheets of gold, silver and silver gilt with designs in engraving and relief, with added decoration of enamels, cameos and precious stones.
The developed altar of the medieval church consisted of (1) the table (mensa) which was usually a stone slab marked with five crosses as a sign of its consecration; (2) the support (stipes) a solid mass or a series of piers or columns and (3) the altar cavity (sepulchrum) which contained the relics of some saint or martyr, a practice developed from a decree of Felix I in the 3rd century requiring Mass to be celebrated above the tombs of the martyrs.
When a church has more than one altar the principal one is called the High Altar, and it is placed against the rear of the chancel or isolated in the body of the church. In Italian churches the High Altar is placed at the crossing (at the intersection of the nave and transepts); in France towards the rear of the choir; in Spain towards the rear of the nave.
Small movable or portable altars have been used in Christian worship since the 7th century. They are usually slabs of stone marked with the five crosses. Since Late Gothic times portable altars have also been formed by altar-pieces.
ALTAR-PIECE
A decorated screen, panel or series of panels, movable or fixed, placed on or behind an altar, generally incorporating paintings or reliefs. Few altarpieces are recorded prior to the 11th century, yet the elaborate design of such works as the Palo d'Oro in St Mark's, Venice suggests an earlier development. The Gothic altar-piece ( 13th and 14th cent.) usually consisted of a group of hinged panels, a triptych of three panels or a polyptych of five or more panels, so arranged that the outer sections or wings would fold over the inner sections. The principal subject was painted on the face of the inner panel, related subjects or a continuation of the principal subject appearing on the outer panels.
The backs of the panels were also sometimes painted, the panels then generally being divided into a series of smaller pictures. If the panels were fixed rather than hinged the same formal arrangement was retained. The major panels were usually mounted upon a step or base called the predella and this predella was decorated with a series of small paintings or carvings related to the theme of the main panels. The predella was often included in the design of the frame and thus became an integral part of the altar-piece rather than a base supporting it. Frames were of wood elaborately carved and gilded. Examples of the triptych include Duccio's 'Madonna and Child' ( London/Nat. Gall.) and Simon Martini's 'Annunciation' ( Florence/Uffizi); the 'Crucifixion' by Jacopo di Cione ( London/Nat. Gall.) is a typical polyptych.
During the 15th century the Gothic altar-piece was gradually replaced by the more typical Renaissance form of a single main panel divided into three or more parts under which in the base of the frame were the predella pictures. Examples include the 'Adoration of the Lamb' by Hubert and Jan van Eyck (St Bavon, Ghent), a multiple central panel with folding wings; the San Zeno altar-piece by Mantegna ( Verona), the Frari altar-piece by Giovanni Bellini ( Venice), and the 'Coronation of the Virgin' by Fra Angelico ( Paris/Louvre). The altarpiece of the 16th century and later was often a single picture attached to a wall behind the altar or set into an architectural frame like Titian's 'Assumption of the Virgin' (Frari, Venice).
STELE
A stone pillar used as a gravestone or to mark a site, decorated with a relief or inscribed. The earliest known stelae to bear a relief are Sumerian work dating from 2550 B.C. One of these represents King Urnammu pouring a libation, another shows him at the head of his army. Chinese Buddhist stelae are adorned with reliefs of the seated Buddha. Mayan stelae bear dated inscriptions and religious reliefs and were set up as 'time-markers'. The finest stelae are the Athenian tombstones of the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. The earliest examples are tall and narrow usually carved with a single figure, but the mid-5th-century slab is wider and allows of a more elaborate relief, generally depicting an episode from the life of the deceased. These Greek slabs were often crowned with a pediment and framed by engaged pillars. In the 4th century the compositions become more crowded and the relief more coarsely cut. The demand for sculptured stelae declined in Athens after the decree of Demetrius of Phaleron against the display of wealth, but they remained popular in the Greek colonies and were also favoured by the Romans.
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