Devotion & Art - Altarpieces in European Churches 1400-1600

Simplistic online lecture from the Churches Conservation Trust looking at a selection of altarpieces.

Janelle Diethelm took us on a rapid overview of altarpieces from 1400-1600 but in doing so painted a slightly confused picture. To start with she said she would look at Northern altarpieces rather than Italian who was fine but she then started with the Maesta from Sienna. She then described three or four examples with good illustrations.

I get that the talk was only meant to be 45 minutes and this is a huge subject but, given the audience who I suspect come from a church architecture background, then a bit more about the function of altarpieces and the development of their structure rather than just looking at images and explaining some symbolism might have hung together better.

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