Best Altarpiece

Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele is a large oil-on-panel painting completed by Jan van Eyck in 1436 and now held by the Groeningemuseum in Bruges. It presents the Virgin and Child with Saints Donatian and George and the kneeling donor, Canon Joris van der Paele, within a carefully construct...

The Burial of the Count of Orgaz is a large painting completed by El Greco in 1586 for the Church of Santo Tome in Toledo, where it remains. It represents a local legend in which Saints Stephen and Augustine descend to bury Gonzalo Ruiz de Toledo, while an upper heavenly realm opens above a gatherin...

The Calling of Saint Matthew is an oil painting made by Caravaggio around 1599 to 1600 for the Contarelli Chapel in San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome. It depicts Christ indicating Matthew among a group seated around a table, while a strong diagonal beam of light organizes the scene; contemporary dress, r...

The Montefeltro Altarpiece, also called the Brera Madonna, is a painting by Piero della Francesca made around the 1470s for Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, and now housed in Milan's Pinacoteca di Brera. It shows the Virgin and sleeping Christ Child surrounded by saints and angels, with the...

The Descent from the Cross is a monumental triptych by Peter Paul Rubens, completed in the early 17th century for the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp, where it remains. Its central panel shows Christ's pale body being lowered diagonally from the cross by a group of straining figures, while the side...

The Virgin of the Rocks is the name given to two closely related compositions by Leonardo da Vinci, one in the Louvre and another in the National Gallery, London. Both show the Virgin Mary, the Christ Child, the young John the Baptist, and an angel gathered in a rocky landscape, using pyramidal grou...

The Entombment of Christ is an oil painting made by Caravaggio around 1602 to 1604 for a chapel in the Chiesa Nuova in Rome and now held by the Vatican Pinacoteca. It shows Christ's body being carried toward a stone slab by Nicodemus and John, with mourning women behind them; the figures form a desc...

The Transfiguration is an altarpiece begun by Raphael around 1516 and left unfinished at his death in 1520, with parts completed by members of his workshop, probably including Giulio Romano. Its upper register shows the radiant Christ with Moses and Elijah, while the lower register depicts the apost...

The Assumption of the Virgin is a monumental altarpiece painted by Titian between 1516 and 1518 for the high altar of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice, where it remains. Approximately 6.9 metres tall, the panel organizes the apostles, the ascending Virgin, and God the Father into three verti...

The San Zaccaria Altarpiece is a signed and dated 1505 painting by Giovanni Bellini, preserved in its original setting in the Church of San Zaccaria in Venice. It depicts the enthroned Virgin and Child accompanied by saints and a music-making angel within a carefully constructed architectural space....

The Descent from the Cross is an oil-on-panel painting made by Rogier van der Weyden around 1435, probably for the crossbowmen's guild in Leuven, and now held by the Museo del Prado in Madrid. Christ's curved body is echoed by the collapsing Virgin, while the mourners are compressed into a shallow,...

The Maestà is a large, originally double-sided altarpiece painted by Duccio di Buoninsegna for the high altar of Siena Cathedral and installed there in 1311. Its principal front presented the enthroned Virgin and Child surrounded by saints and angels, while numerous smaller scenes narrated the lives...

The Mérode Altarpiece is a small oil-on-panel triptych associated with the workshop of Robert Campin and generally dated to the 1420s or 1430s. Its central panel places the Annunciation in a contemporary Netherlandish domestic interior, flanked by kneeling donors and Saint Joseph working in his shop...

The Portinari Altarpiece is a large triptych painted by Hugo van der Goes for Tommaso Portinari, a Florentine representative of the Medici bank in Bruges. Its central panel depicts the Adoration of the Shepherds, while the wings show members of the Portinari family with their patron saints. Installe...

The Ghent Altarpiece, also called The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, is a large polyptych completed in 1432 for Saint Bavo's Cathedral in Ghent. An inscription associates it with the brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck, although their respective contributions remain debated. Its many painted panels comb...

The Isenheim Altarpiece, created by Matthias Grünewald circa 1515, is a monumental religious artwork housed in the Monastery Church of St. Anthony in Isenheim, Alsace. It depicts scenes from the Passion of Christ with startling realism and intense emotional impact. The altarpiece’s graphic portrayal...

The Crucifixion of Saint Peter is an oil painting made by Caravaggio around 1600 to 1601 for the Cerasi Chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome. It depicts three laborers raising a cross on which the elderly Peter has been nailed upside down, emphasizing physical weight, effort, and rough materials r...

The Pesaro Altarpiece, also known as the Madonna di Ca' Pesaro, was painted by Titian between 1519 and 1526 for the Pesaro family chapel in Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice. It presents the Virgin and Child with saints, donors, and military imagery in a composition organized around a strong di...

The Veit Stoss Altarpiece is a monumental carved and painted winged altarpiece made for Saint Mary's Basilica in Kraków and completed in 1489. Constructed principally from limewood, it rises approximately 13 metres and centers on a crowded scene of the Dormition of the Virgin, with other Marian and...

The Ognissanti Madonna is a large tempera-and-gold panel painted by Giotto di Bondone around 1310, probably for the Church of Ognissanti in Florence, and now in the Uffizi Gallery. It shows the Virgin and Child enthroned beneath a Gothic canopy and surrounded by angels and saints. Giotto gives the t...

The Pala d'Oro is a gold, enamel, and gemstone altar screen preserved behind the high altar of Saint Mark's Basilica in Venice. Its present form combines Byzantine enamels and Venetian goldwork produced and rearranged over several centuries, with major additions made in the fourteenth century. The d...

The Temptation of Saint Anthony is a triptych attributed to Hieronymus Bosch, painted around the beginning of the 16th century and held by the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in Lisbon. Its central and side panels surround the steadfast saint with hybrid monsters, burning landscapes, ruined structures...

The Seven Works of Mercy is an altarpiece painted by Caravaggio in 1606 to 1607 for the Pio Monte della Misericordia in Naples, where it remains. It compresses the seven corporal acts of mercy into a crowded nocturnal street scene, including feeding the hungry, visiting prisoners, sheltering travele...

The San Zeno Altarpiece is a triptych painted by Andrea Mantegna between 1456 and 1460 for the Basilica of San Zeno in Verona. Its central section presents the Virgin and Child with saints within a classical architectural setting that continues across the separate panels, creating the impression of...

The Disrobing of Christ, commonly called El Espolio, is an oil painting completed by El Greco in 1579 for Toledo Cathedral, where it remains in the sacristy. The composition places Christ in a vivid red robe at the center of a compressed crowd of soldiers and onlookers, while figures preparing the c...

The Conversion of Saint Paul is an oil painting made by Caravaggio around 1600 to 1601 for the Cerasi Chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome. It shows Paul fallen beneath a large horse as he experiences divine light, reducing the biblical event to a few figures within a dark, confined space; the pai...

The Retablo Mayor is the high altarpiece of Seville Cathedral in Spain, begun in 1482 and developed over several generations by numerous artists. Its vast carved and gilded wooden structure contains 45 relief scenes centered on the lives of Christ and the Virgin, arranged within an elaborate archite...

Gentile da Fabriano painted the Adoration of the Magi in 1423 for the chapel of the wealthy banker Palla Strozzi in Santa Trinita, Florence. The tempera-and-gold altarpiece presents the Magi's journey and arrival as a continuous, richly populated procession filled with luxurious fabrics, animals, an...

Caravaggio painted Death of the Virgin around 1601-1606 for a Carmelite church in Rome, but the completed altarpiece was rejected by its patrons. The work depicts the dead Virgin with an unidealized body, surrounded by grieving apostles and Mary Magdalene beneath a large red curtain. Acquired after...