Artist Unknown Type Nottingham alabaster | Year Circa 1450–1500 | |
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Dimensions 25 cm × 146 cm (9.8 in × 57 in) Location Church St. Martin, Nailloux | ||
The Nailloux Altarpiece (French: "Retable de Nailloux") is a retable-type altarpiece made of five alabaster panels carved in high relief. Dedicated to the Passion of Jesus Christ, it is conserved in a chapel of St. Martin Church of Nailloux, in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern France.
The retable is a Nottingham alabaster and was probably carved during the second half of the 15th century in a Midlands workshop. Although it is currently impossible to recognize the potential funder / sponsor at the source of the appearance of this foreign work in Nailloux, it is interesting to note that the work itself is contemporary of a period of economic development for the region: the golden age of woad culture in Lauragais.
With a total length of 1.46 m (57 in), the altarpiece is made of four side panels of 43 × 25 cm (18 x 9 in) and a bigger central panel of 50 × 25 cm (19 x 9 in).
The Passion of Christ is often a favorite theme in medieval altarpieces because it associates the memory of the sacrifice of Christ with the Eucharist. In the Nailloux altrapiece are represented, from left to right: the Arrest, the Flagellation, the Crucifixion (main panel), the Entombment and the Resurrection of Christ.
The neighboring church of Montgeard also houses four pannels of a dismembered Nottingham alabaster altarpiece (probably dedicated to the Life of the Virgin). The presence of these works of the same foreign origin in two churches so close to each other has so far not been explained.
The Nailloux Altarpiece is classified "Monument historique" as an objet since 1914. After the renovation of the church, completed in 2011, the altarpiece has been restored in 2013 following a subscription to the Fondation du Patrimoine.