What is an altarpiece Fra Angelico s San Marco Altarpiece

You might think I'm a bit crazy to suggest this, but the next time you're in a museum that displays a work of art labeled as an altarpiece, I want you to get down on your knees on the floor and look up at the image. This point of view will start to give you a sense of how what you are now looking at was originally intended to be seen and used. Notice how the angle of vision in this 15th century Italian painting directs your eye straight to the figures in the middle. We're also guided there by the kneeling figure on the left, who looks out at us while gesturing to the center. He's modeling for us what we should be doing while looking at this painting, kneeling respectfully and giving our attention to the two figures who are the key to this image, the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ. An altarpiece displayed in a museum is being treated as a work of art, something to be admired for its visual qualities or studied for its history. But this is not what an altarpiece is really for. An altarpiece like this one played an important role in the religious lives of Catholics, a version of Christianity that dominated Western Europe for close to a thousand years. Images originally placed above an altar in a Catholic church were not created as works of art. These images, sometimes made in paint, sometimes in sculpture, often a combination of both, were intended to help people to better understand the miracle that would take place on the altar below. While used in many world religions throughout history, in a Catholic church, an altar is the special table at the center of religious ritual. It is on this table that bread and wine are miraculously transformed into the Eucharist, the body and blood of Jesus Christ, which is then eaten by Catholics in their most sacred act of communion or bonding with God. This is a miracle. It defies the logic of worldly experience and requires that Christians suspend disbelief about the bread and wine they see and instead accept through faith that this transformation, what we call transubstantiation, has occurred. Imagery that reminded people of the Christian story could help them embrace this faith. While many different stories are told in altarpieces, most often we see scenes like this one that remind viewers about Jesus Christ, the son of God. We are reminded that he sacrificed himself to save humanity and especially that he was both God and a human being. A human being who was a baby, who had a mother, and who had a body and blood that could miraculously manifest on the below. Are altarpieces often beautiful or interesting to look at? Absolutely. Should we appreciate them as works of art? I say yes, but we should also remember that these are tools and that their first job was all business.