The Restoration of the High Altar of Kisszeben

Just after a lot of a long time of restoration, the Higher Altar of Kisszeben (Sabinov, Slovakia) has been assembled in the Hungarian National Gallery. The restoration of a single of the largest and most ornate winged altars from the medieval interval of the Kingdom of Hungary commenced in 1954 and was done in the summer time of 2020. The substantial altar was set on look at from 24 September at the Gallery’s exhibition titled Late Gothic Winged Altarpieces (it is currently not on see thanks to the national lockdown).

I wrote on this altarpiece a number of decades ago, when it was first put on exhibit at the Countrywide Gallery, at that time nonetheless devoid of its gable – see this previously submit. Additional particulars about the history of the altarpiece can be uncovered there. 

The winged altar, which was a person of the premier and most ornate kinds in the medieval Kingdom of Hungary, is dated to 1496 in accordance to an inscription on the body of the paintings – but it by natural means took a for a longer time period to complete. The altar was “renovated” in the baroque time period, the panels of its workday aspect ended up all overpainted. This overpainting was not taken off in the restoration campaign. The predella and the gable of the altar – equally of which acquired very seriously harmed – have been both of those reconstructed.

(Resource of text and illustrations or photos: Museum of Fine Arts – Hungarian National Gallery. For further images, see this report.)