page_title: Miniature altarpiece (WB.232)
section_title: Structure and iconography
hierarchical_section_title: Miniature altarpiece (WB.232) / Structure and iconography
caption_attribution_description: English: Portable altar, Boxwood, circa 1511, with thanks to British Museum for allowing photography
context_page_description: The miniature altarpiece in the British Museum, London, is a very small portable Gothic boxwood miniature sculpture completed in 1511 by the Northern Netherlands master sometimes identified as Adam Dircksz, and members of his workshop. At 25.1 cm high, it is built from a series of architectural layers or registers, which culminate at an upper triptych, whose center panel contains a minutely detailed and intricate Crucifixion scene filled with multitudes of figures in relief. Its outer wings show Christ Carrying the Cross on the left, and the Resurrection on the right.
  The smaller triptych on the second level is carved in low relief and shows the Agony in the Garden in its central panel. Below this is a single, wide but low, piece showing the betrayal by Judas Iscariot, followed by the lower again semicircular arcade depiction of the Last Supper, which is placed upon two registers which act as supports for the overall structure. The reverse of the altar contains two chambers, which at one time may have contained relics of saints.
context_section_description: Miniature boxwood altars became popular during the late 15th century trend towards piety for the Passion and life of the Virgin , when they were used as visual aids for private prayer. Like many miniature boxwoods of its type, it shares characteristics with  full scale altars built for churches, in this instance it resembles, and may have been modeled on, the contemporary altar, at St Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium, where Jan van Eyck's famous Ghent Altarpiece has been held since it was created in the mid-1420s.
  Although the majority of boxwood miniatures are imbued with Gothic imagery, WB.232 contains also a number of Italian Renaissance influences. In this, it is similar to the smaller miniature altarpiece OA 561, a c. 1520–1530 boxwood sculpture now in the Louvre, which was bequeathed by Ferdinand's cousin Baron Adolph Carl von Rothschild's estate in 1901, and which may or may not be also by Adam Dircksz. Both works share a very similar architectural five level structure, with an upper Crucifixion triptych. Both works contain highly stylized figures, which resemble a third example in the Charlottenborg Palace, in Copenhagen, Denmark.
  The altar comes with a leather case with gilded borders. The Louvre altar has its original Tree of Jesse case intact. Its reverse contains two empty chambers, presumably intended for relics of saints, encased in a now-lost crest of arms, which would have represented the original donor or commissioning patron.
caption: Crucifixion scene
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