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
The Altar (Herbert poem) as "a broken Altar" that is "cemented with teares", on which he offers himself as a sacrifice. Built into this is an allusion to Psalm 51:17: "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart." In terms of the section's developing theme, the following poem is titled "The Sacrifice". However, that shifts the focus from the poet's personal devotion in "The Altar" by being written as a soliloquy of Jesus on the cross. Beyond its emblematic function, "The Altar" inspired several explicitly ekphrastic poetic responses that were published later in the 17th century. The piece