03 — ARTWORK
Corbinelli Altar
- MEDIUM
- Marble
- TYPE
- Religious
PALETTE
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CURRENT LOCATION · Santo Spirito
- FILE
- 1050 × 1400 px · JPEG
COMMENTARY
UNDERLINED TERMS ARE DEFINED IN THE GLOSSARY.
The outstanding achievement of Sansovino's early period is the Corbinelli Altar, a commission he received soon after the chapela small separate place for worship, either part of a large church or a separate building. was granted to the family in 1485.
From the beginning reliefA sculptural work in which all or part projects from the flat surface. There are three basic forms: low relief (bas-relief, basso rilievo), in which figures project less than half their depth from the background; medium relief (mezzo-rilievo), in which figures are seen half round; and high relief (alto rilievo), in which figures are almost detached from their background. played a greater part in the work of Andrea Sansovino than in that of any other sculptor of his time. The Corbinelli altar was planned primarily in relief; it included a lunetteIn architecture, a semicircular space, such as that over a door or window or in a vaulted roof, that may contain a window, painting or sculptural decoration. relief of the Coronation of the Virgin, two tondi of the Annunciationthe term for the event described in the Gospel according to St. Luke, when the Angel Gabriel brings the Virgin Mary the news that she is to bear her son, Jesus Christ. The Annunciation was among the most widespread pictorial subjects of European art during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance., a relief predellaAn Italian word for the small strip of paintings which forms the lower edge or socle of a large altarpiece (pala). Such a polyptych consists of a principal, central panel with subsidiary side and/or top panels, and a predella: the predella usually has narrative scenes from the lives of the Saints who are represented in the panels above. Because of the small size of predelle - they are not usually more than 25-30 cm high, though often relatively very wide - they were frequently used for pictorial experiments that the painter did not wish to risk making in the larger panels. The first datable example seems to be that in Simone Martini's S. Louis of Toulouse (1317, Naples). and an antependiumornamental covering of an altar, originally made of fabric; later produced in stone, wood, precious metals or enamel, often contains figurative or symbolic pictures. relief with the Lamentation over the Dead Christ.
The triumphal archIn the architecture of ancient Rome, a large and usually free-standing ceremonial archway built to celebrate a military victory. Often decorated with architectural features and relief sculptures, they usually consisted of a large archway flanked by two smaller ones. The triumphal archway was revived during the Renaissance, though usually as a feature of a building rather than as an independent structure. In Renaissance painting they appear as allusion to classical antiquity. motif of the altar is closely related to that in Benedetto da Maiano's contemporary Annunciation altar (Sant'Anna dei Lombardi, Naples) but with much bolder reference to the ArchThe pointed arch is widely regarded as the main identifiable feature of Gothic architecture (distinct from the round arch of the Romanesque period). The three most common Gothic arches are the Equilateral, Lancet and Tudor. of Constantine in Rome. In the Corbinelli Altar, Sansovino demonstrated his great versatility as a sculptor, employing a variety of styles and figure types in the carving of the reliefs and sculpture in the round. This work established him as the successor to the 15th-century masters Donatello and Desiderio da Settignano.
OTHER WORKS BY ANDREA SANSOVINO
CITE THIS RECORD — BIBTEX
@online{wga-r27b6d2540be628,
author = {Krén, Emil and Marx, Daniel},
title = {Corbinelli Altar by SANSOVINO, Andrea},
organization = {{Web Gallery of Art}},
date = {2026-09-13},
url = {https://beta.wga.hu/artists/sansovino-andrea-r3aa911c292cbaa/corbinelli-altar-r27b6d2540be628},
urldate = {2026-09-13},
langid = {english}
}ACCESSED 2026-09-13. REPLACE THE AUTHOR FIELD WITH THE COMMENTARY AUTHOR WHERE ONE IS NAMED.