DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.25050#0225
carried out. A dangerous threat came with the Second World War.
As mentioned, on the eve of the war the altarpiece was dismantled
and stowed away in the Sandomierz Cathedral, but the Germans
traced it back and transported it to the Reich. In 1945, it was
found by the eminent collector Emeryk Hutten Czapski in the
cellars of the Nuremberg Castle and then retrieved due to the
efforts of professor Karol Estreicher, to be remounted in its
original place after a several-year painstaking restoration.
The altarpiece is a pentaptych. It is composed of a central
Corpus and two sets of wings, one hinged and one fixed. With
the predella and crowning it measures almost thirteen metres in
height, and it must be remembered that its top architectural details
were lost, to the serious detriment of the quality of the work. All
figures are carved in limewood, polychromed and richly gilded.
The figures in the Corpus box are three-dimensional, and the
scenes on the wings are carved in flat relief.
The altar’s iconography illustrates one of the chief tenets of
late medieval theology: the participation of the Virgin in the act of
Redemption. Presented from this point of view, the scenes from
the life of Christ begin with the Jesse Tree on the predella, and,
through the depictions on the wings, culminate in the larger-
than-life Dormition of the Virgin in the Corpus, placed above the
Assumption and the Coronation of the Virgin in the crowning. Stoss
realized this theologically inspired concept in his unique style,
with many innovative solutions both in the composition of entire
scenes and the expression of particular figures.
Viewed from a distance, the altarpiece seems a complicated set
of forms captured in motion, with their dynamics heightened by
reflexes of light from the gilding. Stoss’s figures, especially the
gigantic Apostels from the Dormition, assume grandiose poses,
they writhe and gesticulate. The “Late Gothic swirl” billows their
robes and dents even the seemingly solid architectonic details. On
closer scrutiny new aspects are revealed, above all the richness of
expression, from poignant drama to the silent lyricism of the
figure of Mary. To reach yet deeper layers of Stoss’s work, one
218
As mentioned, on the eve of the war the altarpiece was dismantled
and stowed away in the Sandomierz Cathedral, but the Germans
traced it back and transported it to the Reich. In 1945, it was
found by the eminent collector Emeryk Hutten Czapski in the
cellars of the Nuremberg Castle and then retrieved due to the
efforts of professor Karol Estreicher, to be remounted in its
original place after a several-year painstaking restoration.
The altarpiece is a pentaptych. It is composed of a central
Corpus and two sets of wings, one hinged and one fixed. With
the predella and crowning it measures almost thirteen metres in
height, and it must be remembered that its top architectural details
were lost, to the serious detriment of the quality of the work. All
figures are carved in limewood, polychromed and richly gilded.
The figures in the Corpus box are three-dimensional, and the
scenes on the wings are carved in flat relief.
The altar’s iconography illustrates one of the chief tenets of
late medieval theology: the participation of the Virgin in the act of
Redemption. Presented from this point of view, the scenes from
the life of Christ begin with the Jesse Tree on the predella, and,
through the depictions on the wings, culminate in the larger-
than-life Dormition of the Virgin in the Corpus, placed above the
Assumption and the Coronation of the Virgin in the crowning. Stoss
realized this theologically inspired concept in his unique style,
with many innovative solutions both in the composition of entire
scenes and the expression of particular figures.
Viewed from a distance, the altarpiece seems a complicated set
of forms captured in motion, with their dynamics heightened by
reflexes of light from the gilding. Stoss’s figures, especially the
gigantic Apostels from the Dormition, assume grandiose poses,
they writhe and gesticulate. The “Late Gothic swirl” billows their
robes and dents even the seemingly solid architectonic details. On
closer scrutiny new aspects are revealed, above all the richness of
expression, from poignant drama to the silent lyricism of the
figure of Mary. To reach yet deeper layers of Stoss’s work, one
218