Anonymous: The Ayala Altarpiece (1396)

(Art Institute Chicago, Chicago, USA)

A piece made by unknown Spanish artists. This piece is made up of a retable, which was set up behind the altar table, and a frontal, which decorated the front of the table itself. The work is known as the "Ayala Altarpiece", named after Pedro López de Ayala (1332-1407), a Catalonian statesman, historian, poet, chronicler, chancellor, and courtier in the service of several kings of Castile. Ayala commissioned this large altarpiece for the family’s funerary chapel in their fortified palace in northern Spain. The retable and frontal show a series of scenes that tell the stories of the life of Christ and the Virgin: the annunciation, the last supper, the crucifixion, flight to Egypt, Pentecost, the resurrection, the Visitation (meeting of Mary and Elizabeth), the holy family and Simeon in the temple, the birth of Christ etc. In the lower-left and lower-right corner of the retable are images of Ayala and his wife, Leonora de Guzman, kneeling in prayer with their son and daughter-in-law. A piece from 1396.