Editing Altarpiece (section)

===Renaissance and Reformation===
[[File:The Virgin and Child with Saints and a Donor by Palma Vecchio.jpeg|thumb|[[Sacra conversazione]] with a landscape setting and [[donor portrait]], [[Palma Vecchio]], c. 1519]]
The 15th century also saw a development of the composition of Italian altarpieces where the polyptych was gradually abandoned in favour of single-panel, painted altarpieces.<ref name=grove/> In Italy, the ''[[sacra conversazione]]'' developed, a group usually centred on the [[Virgin and Child]], flanked by a group of saints usually chosen to represent the patron saints of the church, city, [[religious order (Catholic)|religious order]] or donors. These became increasingly informal in pose, and some may have been initially displayed in the donor's house, then bequeathed to a church as a memorial. They represented the same components as many altarpieces with framed compartments, but with a single pictorial space.<ref name=":3">Murrays, 10</ref>

Other types of Italian composition also moved towards having a single large scene, sometimes called a ''pala'' (Italian for "panel"),<ref>Murrays, 362, 10. By contrast in Italian a ''paliotto'' is an [[antependium]] or altar frontal in any medium, Murrays, 364</ref> often dispensing with the predella. Rather than static figures, narrative scenes from the lives of the main figures grew in popularity; this was to become the dominant style for large altarpieces over the next centuries.  Originally mostly horizontal ("landscape") in format, they increasingly used vertical ("portrait") formats. Some were as much as 4 metres tall, and concentrated on a single dramatic action. This much height typically required a composition with an ''in aria'' group to fill the upper part of the picture space, as in [[Raphael]]'s ''[[Transfiguration (Raphael)|Transfiguration]]'' (now Vatican), though ''[[The Raising of Lazarus (Sebastiano del Piombo)|The Raising of Lazarus]]'' by [[Sebastiano del Piombo]] (now London) is almost as tall, using only a landscape at the top.

In Italy, during the Renaissance, free-standing groups of sculpture also began to feature as altarpieces. The most famous example is [[Pietà (Michelangelo)|the ''Pietà'' by Michelangelo]], originally placed as the altarpiece in a side chapel of [[Old St Peter's]].<ref>DeGreve, 17</ref>
[[File:Cranach Reformationsaltar.jpg|thumb|[[Lucas Cranach the Elder]]'s Lutheran [[Wittenberg Altarpiece]], 1547]]

In the north of Europe, the [[Protestant Reformation]] from the early 16th century onwards led to a swift decline in the number of altarpieces produced in the parts of Europe affected.<ref name=grovenr>{{cite book |editor-last= Campbell|editor-first= Gordon |title= The Grove Encyclopedia of Northern Renaissance Art |year= 2009|publisher= Oxford University Press|isbn= 978-0-19-533466-1|volume=1|pages=32–33}}</ref> Outbursts of [[iconoclasm]] locally led to the destruction of many altarpieces.<ref name=csmith>{{cite book |last= Chipps Smith|first= Jeffrey|date= 2004|title= The Northern Renaissance|publisher= Phaidon Press |isbn= 978-0-7148-3867-0|pages=351–380}}</ref> As an example, during the burning of the [[Cathedral of Our Lady (Antwerp)|Antwerp Cathedral]] in the course of the Reformation in 1533, more than fifty altarpieces were destroyed.<ref name=splendor/> The Reformation initially persisted with the creation of new some altarpieces reflecting its doctrines, sometimes using portraits of Lutheran leaders for figures such as apostles. The Protestant range of subjects contracted; traditional saints were no longer shown, and the [[Last Supper]] was a popular scene. [[Lucas Cranach the Elder]]'s [[Wittenberg Altarpiece]] of 1547 is a leading example, with the side panels showing scenes of the [[sacraments]] with a modern setting, and the single [[predella]] scene [[Martin Luther]] preaching; the reverses are also painted.

But [[Calvinism]] opposed all large public religious images such as altarpieces, and by about 1560 production of Protestant ones had mostly ceased. The Reformation regarded the Word of God – that is, the gospel – as central to Christendom, and Protestant altarpieces were often painted biblical text passages, increasingly at the expense of any pictures. With time, Protestant though gave birth to the so-called [[pulpit altar]] (''Kanzelaltar'' in German), in which the altarpiece and the pulpit were combined, making the altarpiece a literal abode for the Word of God.<ref name=grovenr/>
[[File:Tizian 041.jpg|thumb|[[Titian]], [[Assumption of the Virgin (Titian)|''Assumption'' in the Frari Church]], 1518, panel, 690 cm × 360 cm (270 in × 140 in)]]

If anything, the Protestant destruction stimulated the creation of more and larger altarpieces in Catholic Europe. [[Titian]] produced a number of ones with very large single scenes, mostly now on canvas. Among the most influential were his [[Assumption of the Virgin (Titian)|''Assumption'' in the Frari Church]] (1518, still on panel, 690 cm × 360 cm (270 in × 140 in)), the ''[[Pesaro Madonna]]'' in the same church (1526, now on canvas), [[The Assassination of Saint Peter Martyr (Titian)|''Killing of Saint Peter Martyr'']] (1529, now lost but known from prints and copies).