# Altarpiece [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [SIERRA VIDAL, Tomás de]() - Date: 1651-1700 - Technique: Polychrome wood, width 1.200 cm ## Commentary SIERRA VIDAL, Tomás de \(b. ca. 1654, Santalla del Bierzo, d. 1725, Medina de Ríoseco\) Altarpiece 1704 Polychrome wood, width 1.200 cm Iglesia de Santiago, Medina de Rioseco In the beginning of the eighteenth century, churches in Spain were filled with arrangements of columns, entablatures, reliefs, and sculpture in an attempt to create a sense of the 'Gesamtkunstwerk,' or total work of art. This concept was characteristically Baroque. The large and richly decorated altarpiece of the church at Medina de Rioseco is an example of this tendency. The altar was the product of a collaboration between two of the best known artists of the day, having been designed by Joaquín de Churriguera \(1674-1724\) and constructed in the workshop of the sculptor Tomás de Sierra Vidal. ## Related artworks - [Altarpiece \(detail\)]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()