Aachen Altar Aachen Altar The Aachen Altar (de: "Aachener Altar") or Passion Altar ("Passionsaltar") is a late gothic passion triptych in the Aachen Cathedral Treasury, made by the so-called Master of the Aachen Altar around 1515/20 in Cologne, Germany. The open, three winged polyptych altar image shows scenes from the Passion of Christ to his Ascension in continuous sequence from left to right. At the assumed time of composition, this type of depiction was already well-established. On the left wing of the altar, Jesus is crowned with the Crown of thorns and confronts Pontius Pilate. The central panel depicts the Stations of
Altar in the Catholic Church the wall. Such an artwork is sometimes called a dossal, a term often reserved instead for an ornamental cloth hanging behind the altar. A painting or a mosaic on the wall can serve the same purpose as a removable altarpiece. An altarpiece may be a single painting or a composition of several panels placed side by side. Especially in the latter case, a series of smaller-scale paintings may act as a kind of base for the main images. This base is called the predella (not to be confused with the same term when used of the platform on which the