Retable and Frontal of the Life of Christ and the Virgin
1396
Medium
Tempera and gold on panel
Dimensions
Retable: 257 × 669.9 cm (99 3/4 × 263 3/4 in.); Frontal: 116.3 × 290.9 cm (45 3/4 × 114 1/2 in.)
Classification
altarpiece
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
88793
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This altarpiece is made up of a retable, which was set up behind the altar table in a Catholic church, and a frontal, which decorated the front of the table itself. The work is a testament to the piety of Pedro López de Ayala, who had the altarpiece made for his family’s funerary chapel in their palace in northern Spain. A major figure in the political and cultural life of late-medieval Spain, Ayala was a courtier, diplomat, and soldier in the service of the kings of Castile, eventually serving a...