How to Use altarpiece in a Sentence

altarpiece

noun
  • As a lapsed Catholic, I was awed by the brilliance of this altarpiece.
    — Alex Greenberger, ARTnews.com, 19 Dec. 2024
  • To see the Madonnas or the bits of lace, the altarpieces, the Rembrandt self-portrait.
    — Allegra Goodman, New Yorker, 4 Jan. 2026
  • This is the first time that the surviving scenes from the rear of the altarpiece’s base, called the predella, have been reunited.
    — Christian K. Kleinbub, ARTnews.com, 29 Oct. 2024
  • Wealthy clients often commissioned artists to paint them into biblical scenes, whether in altarpieces, psalters or other types of works.
    — V.m. Braganza, Smithsonian Magazine, 29 Aug. 2023
  • From that point, a taste for altarpieces never developed, even among Episcopalians.
    — Brian T. Allen, National Review, 20 Jan. 2024
  • The church felt like an old barn; only the elaborate altarpiece, made entirely of adobe, revealed its real purpose.
    — Stanley Stewart, Condé Nast Traveler, 22 Aug. 2019
  • The altarpiece was made around 1434 for the church of Santa Trinità in Florence.
    — Richard Cork, WSJ, 28 Aug. 2018
  • Little is known about the painting’s past, but the press release states it was crafted in the late medieval style and probably belonged to a larger altarpiece.
    — Meilan Solly, Smithsonian Magazine, 20 Dec. 2019
  • The chapel is dominated by a Gothic altarpiece that holds a polished-gold statue of the Buddha.
    — Lawrence Osborne, Travel + Leisure, 16 Oct. 2021
  • That panel, along with several others here, comes from the Maestà, an altarpiece whose dozens of small scenes were pried loose and scattered through collections, or lost.
    — Jackson Arn, The New Yorker, 16 Oct. 2024
  • The main component of the altarpiece is in a difficult-to-access cathedral in Pistoia, Italy.
    — Susan Dunne, courant.com, 3 July 2018
  • The gold leaf artworks have the aesthetic of Byzantine or Renaissance altarpieces.
    — Lee Sharrock, Forbes, 29 Oct. 2024
  • Examining a Bosch altarpiece up close, whether in person or digitally, yields new details with each viewing.
    — Meilan Solly, Smithsonian Magazine, 2 May 2022
  • The show is tightly focused on devotional paintings rather than the altarpieces and larger works at which Bellini also excelled.
    — Christopher Knight, latimes.com, 13 Oct. 2017
  • Restorer Sofia Lobo discovered the bee nests, called cells, while cleaning the 20-foot-tall altarpiece, or reredos.
    — Theresa MacHemer, Smithsonian Magazine, 7 Feb. 2020
  • Inside, at the center of a baroque altarpiece, was Yupanqui’s Virgin, bathed in white fluorescent light.
    — Aatish Taseer, New York Times, 9 Nov. 2023
  • But the two solid panels of music did create an immersive experience, a kind of musical altarpiece – to Schiff.
    — Peter Dobrin, Philly.com, 1 Apr. 2018
  • In 1482, an altarpiece by the painter and sculptor Michael Pacher shows Augustine with a child at his feet holding a spoon.
    — Virginia Raguin, The Conversation, 15 May 2025
  • Picasso also modeled the shape and size of Les Demoiselles on the altarpiece’s unusual proportions.
    — Anthony Brandt and David Eagleman, Smithsonian, 31 Oct. 2017
  • Medieval artwork illustrates this, as many stories only found within apocryphal texts are depicted on the ceilings of basilicas, on altarpieces and in paintings.
    — Christy Cobb, The Conversation, 26 Feb. 2026
  • Curators Laura Llewellyn and John Witty surmise that this gorgeous panel was once at the center of a large altarpiece.
    — Los Angeles Times, 20 July 2021
  • At the end of the 19th century, the altarpiece was separated into parts by a saw and eight of the nine resulting panels were sold to different collectors.
    — Quanta Magazine, 29 Sep. 2016
  • Duccio was commissioned to paint an altarpiece at the Santa Maria Novella in—rivalry be damned—Florence.
    — Jackson Arn, The New Yorker, 16 Oct. 2024
  • Among them is Duccio’s Maestà, an altarpiece for the cathedral of Siena consisting of more than 40 panels, many of which have been separated or lost.
    — John Hooper, WSJ, 28 Nov. 2018
  • Take in the Baroque architecture of Lecce and prepare to be overwhelmed by its exuberant facades, altarpieces, and piazzas.
    — Elizabeth Heath, Travel + Leisure, 3 June 2024
  • This exquisite Gothic polyptych – an altarpiece with pivoting panels – was carved in the late 1400s by Veit Stoss.
    — Rick Steves, Chicago Tribune, 30 May 2023
  • From the contemporary lineup, a sparkling, bronze, 1990 Keith Haring altarpiece.
    — Ray Mark Rinaldi, The Know, 7 July 2019
  • During the Renaissance, altarpieces were made to tell holy stories, to imbue illiterate churchgoers with narratives and images that held up a moral code and a hierarchy of power.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 31 Oct. 2019
  • Along with encouraging parishioners to pledge money, Cioffi asked them to donate their jewelry, to be melted down and fashioned into a crown to be affixed to a painting of the Virgin on the altarpiece.
    — Susan Mulcahy, New Yorker, 3 Nov. 2025
  • Today, Thecla is the patron saint of the city of Tarragona, Spain, where the cathedral is named after her and images of Thecla decorate the altarpiece.
    — Christy Cobb, The Conversation, 16 Jan. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'altarpiece.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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