The
Gotha Altarpiece consists of 162 individual panels on 14 folded wings, which makes it the most extensive panel work of German
panel painting art. The
polyptych consists of a central section, two fixed wings and fourteen movable wings, which allow a total of five display sides depicting scenes from the life of
Jesus Christ along with three scenes from the story of the
'Creation', described in words and illustrations in 157 paintings, which contain around 290 individual scenes. Above each individual scene, there is a
cartouche containing rhyming verses on the frame strips, with the corresponding excerpts based on the
Luther Bible and Lutheran
Gospel harmony by Jacob Beringer published in 1526. The
Gotha Altarpiece is therefore a comprehensive representation of
Protestant theology and
christology, based on the
Lutheran teachings and beliefs. The winged altar has been located in
Friedenstein Palace in Gotha since the middle of the 17th century. After the
World War II, the altarpiece was taken to the
Soviet Union to be brought back to
Gotha in 1957, although the fixed wing is still in the
Pushkin Museum in Moscow. ==References==