# Altar frontal [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [UNKNOWN GOLDSMITH, German]() - Date: 1001-1050 - Technique: Gold and copper over oaken core ## Commentary This rectangular antependium stood in Basel Minster during the Middle Ages. It consists essentially of chased gold panels fixed to an oak core with small nails. The fields contains a series of five semicircular arches framing the following figures: Christ, at whose feet two crowned sovereigns, generally identified as the Emperor Henry II and his wife Kunigunde, are prostrating themselves; St Michael, St Benedict, and lastly the archangels Gabriel and Raphael on Christ's left. This work epitomizes the new Romanesque artistic contest in an Ottonian milieu and the assimilation of the Carolingian past to a newly arisen, firmly monumental style. ## Related artworks - [Agraffe with a Depiction of the Virgin and Saints]() - [Amulet]() - [Arm reliquary of St Lawrence]() - [Arm Reliquary]() - [Book cover]() - [Book Cover]() - [Book Cover]() - [Book cover]() - [Book Cover]() - [Bust reliquary of Charlemagne]() - [Candelabra with seven arms]() - [Candelabrum]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()