In the mid-15th century, when the tradition styles and techniques of the Middle Ages were yielding to the new influences of the Renaissance, the altarpieces of cathedrals and major churches reached a degree of elaboration never seen before. For a century or so altarpieces had been constructed so that they could be closed or open (for saints' days and festivals), often in three parts (triptychs), with two wings folding over the centre. This scheme was now expanded: panels were arranged sometimes in two tiers which could open separately. The three-part stucture could grow to five and even seven. In the most extreme case, Grunewald's Isenheim Altarpiece, there was an unprecedented number of possibilities - a sort of theological hierarchy, with panels opening to reveal deeper and deeper mysteries.

An illustrated book on the religious altarpieces of the Italian Renaissance. Written in 1898, these essays reveal how the altarpieces were not only beautiful creations but were also the product of developments in painting.

"Alas, few of the great polyptychs, wonderful as they are, survive in their original form or place of installation, having suffered the vicissitudes of history, as the authors explain in detail, particularly the misadventures that followed upon the secularization laws promulgated by Napoleon in the late 18th century. Along with this story and countless others comes the extended series of full-color illustrations, over 400 in all, many of them full-page and full-bleed.

The painting and carving of altarpieces was one of the most important and characteristic tasks of Italian Renaissance artists.

"Fireflies at dawn. . . Winged essences, charred bodies still on fire." This evocative poetry-essay collection issues a call for a renewed embracement of the reader's own expressive "self." We've each a persona to hear --- a voice to resonate through silences of night and the noises of everyday. Life is a mystery hard to crack. We bang it like a door and strum it like a lyre until it opens some new "portal" through which the voice can authentically sound-out the "truths" of being human. That's the happening of this book. Altarpieces have always been artistic creations to conceive life's "sacred" space. This book follows that tradition, if rather untraditionally. These pieces speak to "hear" life on one's own terms; from one's own altar and cathedral. This "gathering" created a poet-self identity --- called 'Apo'kstrophes'. The essays join with the poems to conceive poetry and the spiritual quest with a renewed existential-eco-romantic perspective; sounding that quest with both feet grounded on "worldly other" Planet Earth. The challenge to grasp life at the core is a wrenching-wrestling match with the "Other," that ever-present dimension of "poetry" on life's path. --- Joining philosophical play with the authenticity of word-pieces as "true orients," O'Kelly's book, with many poets helping along the way, has taken up that challenge with unflinching creativity. Want a spiritual adventure? Fly! Take the ride! "Oh, the ride! Fins spurred in shivers of hide. Life's dearness reined in the roll of the tide."

Since the 1960s, the Italian altarpiece has attracted unprecedented scholarly attention, bringing artistic, liturgical, social and technical considerations to bear on the subject. The eight contributors to this book provide an impressive synopsis of the different approaches developed in order to enlarge and deepen our knowledge of paintings in terms of their historical functions. Patronage, morphology, religious meaning, pictorial composition, reception, and original setting are all discussed. In several cases, new light is shed on paintings that until a few years ago were dealt with only as elements within a history of style. In nearly all the contributions there is an overwhelming concern with reconstruction, and much new material is presented concerning the historical significance of a specific category of painting. This volume is the result of an international symposium held in June 1988 at the Harvard University for Italian Renaissance Studies at Villa I Tatti in Florence.

"The color photographs, specially commissioned for this project, are an essential feature of the book. Each altarpiece is illustrated in its entirety, with its wings both opened and closed, and in close-up views of its most important carvings and paintings - details that are not available to the average visitor to these sites."--BOOK JACKET.