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| 1476 Altarpiece | |
|---|---|
| Italian:Polittico di San Domenico | |
 The London panels | |
| Artist | Carlo Crivelli |
| Year | 1476 |
| Medium | Tempera and gold on panel |
| Condition | Divided |
| Location | National Gallery andMetropolitan Museum |
The1476 Altarpiece orSan Domenico Altarpiece is a 1476 tempera and gold on panel altarpiece by the ItalianRenaissance painterCarlo Crivelli. Its central panel of thePietà is now in theMetropolitan Museum of Art in New York, whilst the other nine are now in theNational Gallery, London.
The altarpiece was likely originally constructed for theDominican church ofAscoli Piceno, given the inclusion of Dominican saints on the lower levels of the altarpiece. The church held another 1476 Crivelli work, theSaint Peter Martyr Altarpiece. Both works were dismantled from their altarsc. 1776 due to renovations in the church. They were then sold to an antiquarian, Grossi, who further separated the panels and regrouped them. (Thepredellas that went with the altarpieces are lost.)
The altarpiece was seen byLuigi Lanzi and purchased byFrancesco Saverio de Zelada in Rome in 1789, and it arrived in Florence with theRinuccini family [it]. The1476 Altarpiece arrived at London'sNational Gallery in 1868, having come from theDemidov collection.
Art historiansFederico Zeri andRodolfo Pallucchini reintegrated the formerly separated altarpieces, referring first to thePietà in theMetropolitan Museum and second to theMadonna in theMuseum of Fine Arts of Budapest. In 1961, the National Gallery again disjoined its panels and reconstructed them into two separate polyptychs.
The altarpiece has a traditional setting, with aMadonna Enthroned with Child at the center, the saints depicted to the sides, and on the upper level aPietà and half-figure saints.
The structure of the altarpiece perplexed critics for a long time. Art historians eventually adopted the theory that the altarpiece was actually an assemblage of panels from different sources.
Lower register:
Upper register:
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