Description
The Adoration of the Trinity by Albrecht Dürer is a work of religious iconography painted between 1509 and 1511 AD It is an oil on wooden board intended to serve as an altarpiece painting in a chapel.
The oil painting measures 135 x 123 centimeters with an arched top. In the upper center is the crucified Christ, with a figure of God the Father behind and above him. Above the head of God the Father is a white dove surrounded by light. Surrounding the figures of the Trinity are a host of angelic beings. To the left of Christ's feet is the Virgin Mary and a large group of female saints holding palms. To the right are holy men, including Moses with the tablets of the commandments. Below the saints, other women and men are shown worshiping God. All this is represented in a tear in the air.
In the lower right corner of the earth below the heavenly scene, a small figure of Albrecht Dürer stands looking out at the viewer. He points to a plaque next to him with the inscription "Albert Dürer of the North did this in the year of the Virgin 1511."
This oil on poplar panel has gone by several different names in the centuries since Dürer mastered the Northern Renaissance. The worship of the Trinity is sometimes known as All Saints, Allerheiligenbild, or the Landauer Altar (Landauer Altarpiece).
The style and scale immediately point to the Renaissance era, where huge art installations were commissioned to decorate the interiors of religious buildings across the European continent. The most famous, of course, was the Sistine Chapel, which enlisted the help of countless artists to wow its visitors. Raphael and Michelangelo were just two of them.
The rich merchant, Matthäus Landauer from Nuremberg, was the one who commissioned this great work of art that Dürer finally painted.