The Virgin and Child between the Twelve Apostles, known as the Nolay Altarpiece
Unknown · 1400-1425
More than two metres wide, this altarpiece lines up the Virgin and Child in the centre with the twelve apostles on either side, each figure standing in its own niche like a row of saints on a church facade. The stone keeps a good deal of its painting and gilding, so that the gold grounds and coloured robes give an idea of how richly a village altar could glow in the early fifteenth century. Walk along the row and compare the apostles: the sculptor varied their faces, beards and gestures, and gave each the attribute by which he could be recognised.
The relief was carved in Burgundy in the first quarter of the fifteenth century for the Lady chapel of the church of Saint-Martin at Nolay in the Cote-d'Or. It was removed in the nineteenth century, most likely during the enlargement of the church between 1869 and 1873, and ended up in the courtyard of a house in Nolay that had probably belonged to a local priest, the abbe Joseph Lagrange, where it was set into a wall. The Louvre bought it in 1942.
Did You Know? After being thrown out of its church during a building campaign, the altarpiece spent decades as decoration in a private courtyard.
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