MOSER, Lukas

German painter. He was born in Weil der Stadt near Stuttgart, but probably worked mostly in Ulm, where he also produced designs for stained glass. His name is known only through an inscription on the frame of the 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. above the altar of St Mary Magdalene in the parish church at Tiefenbronn, near Pforzheim. Moser was certainly familiar with northern Italian art, and perhaps also with earlier Tuscan painting. He probably visited Provence and southern France, and also had first-hand knowledge of Franco-Flemish innovations.

The Magdalene Altar is as important to the art of German-speaking lands as van Eyck's Ghent Altarpiece is to that of the Netherlands. Both were completed in 1432.