Török Gyöngyi: Gothic Panel Paintings and Wood Carvings in Hungary, Permanent exhibition of the Hungarian National Gallery (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2005/3)

First Floor - Throne-room

in the sanctuary, influential families and pious fraternities erected altars in the aisles attached to columns or in the side chapels. With this boom, winged altarpieces had become tlie main commission for painters, gilders, wood carvers, and cabinet-makers, who were organized into guilds. With the superstructure, spacious shrine, carved and painted statues, ornaments, reliefs and paintings on the wings. Late Gothic altarpieces integrated the main branches of art into a decorative architectural entity. This sophisticated "small architecture" fitted harmoniously into the monumental spaces of Gothic churches. Although the work required to produce an altarpiece may have been done by a single master, it was more customary lor the leading master and most often also contractor - to distribute the tasks among his pupils and members of his workshop. 15th century European sources mostly speak of craftsmen's guilds, to which artists may have belonged. It was only in larger cities that guilds of painters were also set up which also 29. Altarpiece of the Ecstasy of St Mary Magdalene from the church of St Catherine in Berki, 1480-1490