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<title>Predella</title>

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<span id="openzim-page-title" class="mw-page-title-main"><span class="mw-page-title-main">Predella</span></span>

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<p>In art a <b>predella</b> (plural <b>predelle</b>) is the lowest part of an <a href="Altarpiece" title="Altarpiece">altarpiece</a>, sometimes forming a platform or step, and the painting or sculpture along it, at the bottom of an altarpiece, sometimes with a single much larger main scene above, but often (especially in earlier examples), a <a href="Polyptych" title="Polyptych">polyptych</a> or multipanel altarpiece.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> In late medieval and <a href="Renaissance_art" title="Renaissance art">Renaissance</a> altarpieces, where the main panel consisted of a scene with large figures, it was normal to include a predella below with a number of small-scale narrative paintings depicting events from the life of the dedicatee, whether the <a href="Life_of_Christ_in_art" title="Life of Christ in art"><i>Life of Christ</i></a>, the <i><a href="Life_of_the_Virgin" title="Life of the Virgin">Life of the Virgin</a></i> or a <a href="Saint" title="Saint">saint</a>. Typically there would be three to five small scenes, in a horizontal format. Sometimes a single space shows different scenes in <a href="Continuous_representation" class="mw-redirect" title="Continuous representation">continuous representation</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>

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<p>They are significant in <a href="Art_history" title="Art history">art history</a>, as the artist had more freedom from <a href="Iconography" title="Iconography">iconographic conventions</a> than in the main panel as they could only be seen from close up. As the main panels themselves became larger and more dramatic, predellas fell from use around 1510-20 in the <a href="High_Renaissance" title="High Renaissance">High Renaissance</a>, although older or more conservative painters continued to use them, for example <a href="Luca_Signorelli" title="Luca Signorelli">Luca Signorelli</a>, by then in his 70s, in about 1521. In this case he is thought to have only done the <a href="Underdrawing" title="Underdrawing">underdrawing</a> for the main scene, leaving the painting to his workshop assistants. But he is thought to have painted the predella scenes himself.<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup>

</p><p>They had fallen out of fashion in Italy by the mid 16th century, but continued for a while further north. As altarpieces reached the art market from the 18th century onwards, the predella scenes (and other smaller sections) were often detached and sold separately, in effect as <a href="Cabinet_painting" title="Cabinet painting">cabinet paintings</a>, and they are now often spread across several museum collections, with their origin often uncertain. Reuniting, at least conceptually, predella panels with the rest of their original settings gave 20th-century art historians a large task, which continues into the 21st century.

</p><p>More generally, and not usually in the English language, a predella is an altar-step, a shelf above and behind an altar, or a piece of furniture with a lower part to kneel on, for prayer, and often a higher part to support the arms.<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> In English the French term <a href="Prie-dieu" title="Prie-dieu">prie-dieu</a> is normally used for this. <i>Predel</i> or <i>pretel</i>, was <a href="Langobardic" class="mw-redirect" title="Langobardic">Langobardic</a> for "a low wooden platform that serves as a basis in a piece of furniture". In English this step is referred to as a <a href="Gradin" title="Gradin">gradin</a>, which may include a predella in it. A predella is also the lower part of a <a href="Stained_glass" title="Stained glass">stained-glass window</a>.

</p><p>Similar small reliefs are sometimes placed under a larger piece of sculpture. <a href="Donatello" title="Donatello">Donatello</a> placed a narrow scene of <i><a href="Saint_George_Freeing_the_Princess" title="Saint George Freeing the Princess">Saint George Freeing the Princess</a></i> on the base of his <a href="Saint_George_(Donatello)" title="Saint George (Donatello)"><i>Saint George</i></a> for <a href="Orsanmichele" title="Orsanmichele">Orsanmichele</a>.

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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Examples">Examples</h2></div>

<p>Examples of predellas include:

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<ul><li><a href="Duccio" title="Duccio">Duccio</a> – the predella of his <i><a href="Maest%C3%A0_(Duccio)" title="Maestà (Duccio)">Maestà</a></i> – one of the earliest predellas.</li>

<li><a href="Lorenzo_Monaco" title="Lorenzo Monaco">Lorenzo Monaco</a> – <i>Incidents in the Life of Saint Benedict</i><sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> (<abbr title="circa">c.</abbr><span style="white-space:nowrap;"> 1407–1409</span>)</li>

<li><a href="Luca_Signorelli" title="Luca Signorelli">Luca Signorelli</a> – <i><a href="The_Adoration_of_the_Shepherds" class="mw-redirect" title="The Adoration of the Shepherds">The Adoration of the Shepherds</a></i> (<abbr title="circa">c.</abbr><span style="white-space:nowrap;"> 1496</span>)</li>

<li><a href="Andrea_Mantegna" title="Andrea Mantegna">Andrea Mantegna</a> – <i><a href="San_Zeno_Altarpiece_(Mantegna)#Predella" title="San Zeno Altarpiece (Mantegna)">San Zeno Altarpiece</a></i> (1459)</li>

<li><a href="Stanley_Spencer" title="Stanley Spencer">Stanley Spencer</a> – <a href="Sandham_Memorial_Chapel" title="Sandham Memorial Chapel">Sandham Memorial Chapel</a>, <a href="Burghclere" title="Burghclere">Burghclere</a>, Hants.</li>

<li>Pre-Raphaelite <a href="Dante_Rossetti" class="mw-redirect" title="Dante Rossetti">Dante Rossetti</a> revisited the predella in his second <a href="Beata_Beatrix" title="Beata Beatrix">Beata Beatrix</a> (1871-1872).</li>

<li><a href="Leigh_Behnke" title="Leigh Behnke">Leigh Behnke</a> – a 20th-century realist, she has made use of the predella format in numerous works (c. 1981–2019)</li></ul>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Notes">Notes</h2></div>

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<li id="cite_note-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-1">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Osborne, 923</span>

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<li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-2">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Lucie-Smith, 174 </span>

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<li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-3">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-6350122?ldp_breadcrumb=back&intobjectid=6350122&from=salessummary&lid=1"><i>The Massacre of the Innocents with the Adoration of the Shepherds and the Adoration of the Magi - panel from a predella</i></a>, <a href="Christie's" title="Christie's">Christie's</a>, Live Auction 20055, Lot 22, December 2021</span>

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<li id="cite_note-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-4">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Osborne, 923</span>

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</style><cite class="citation web cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20030420135350/http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=NG4062">"Incidents in the Life of Saint Benedict"</a>. <i>www.nationalgallery.org.uk</i>. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=NG4062">the original</a> on 20 April 2003<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">13 January</span> 2022</span>.</cite></span>

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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2></div>

<ul><li><a href="Edward_Lucie-Smith" title="Edward Lucie-Smith"> Lucie-Smith, Edward</a>, <i>The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Art Terms</i>, 2003 (2nd edn), Thames & Hudson, World of Art series, <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>0500203652</bdi></li>

<li>Osborne, Harold (ed), <i>The Oxford Companion to Art</i>, 1970, OUP, <a href="ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <bdi>019866107X</bdi></li></ul>

<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2></div>

<ul><li><span class="noviewer" typeof="mw:File"></span> Media related to <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Predellas" class="extiw external" title="commons:Category:Predellas">Predellas</a> at Wikimedia Commons</li></ul>

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