MASTER OF SAN LUCCHESE

This Italian artist, whose precise identity has not yet been discovered, was named by art historians after an altarpieceGLOSSARYA picture or sculpture that stands on or is set up behind an altar. The term reredos is used for an ornamental screen or partition, not directly attached to the altar table but affixed to the wall behind it. A diptych is an altarpiece consisting of two panels, a triptych one of three panels, and a polyptych one of four or more panels. From the 14th to 16th century, the altarpiece was one of the most important commissions in European art; it was through the altarpiece that some of the most decisive developments in painting and sculpture came about. once in the church of San Lucchese, Poggibonsi, south of Florence. Other works made in a similar style have been attributed to the same painter. These pictures suggest that he was influenced by the Florentine artist Maso di Banco, and that he was active from about 1340 to 1370.