Winged altarpiece Winged altarpiece A winged altarpiece (also "folding altar") or winged retable is a special form of altarpiece (reredos, occasionally retable), common in Central Europe, in which the fixed shrine or "corpus" can be enclosed by two (triptych), four (pentaptych) or more (polyptych) movable wings. The technical terms are derived from : "trís" or "triple"; πέντε: "pénte" or "five"; πολύς: "polýs" or "many"; and πτυχή: "ptychē" or "fold, layer". Because the winged altar can display different scenes on weekdays, Sundays or holidays, based on the motifs and type of decoration (painted panels or reliefs), it is also called a liturgical altar.
Cervara Altarpiece panels were re-united at the Palazzo Bianco in autumn 2005. Cervara Altarpiece The Cervara Altarpiece or Cervara Polyptych was an oil-on-oak-panel altarpiece painted by the Flemish painter Gerard David early in the 16th century for the high altar of Cervara Abbey in Liguria, Italy. It was commissioned by the Genoese nobleman Vincenzo Sauli on 7 September 1506, as dated in a 17th-century document - Sauli's name is painted above the Virgin's feet in the central panel. David painted it in Bruges and it was installed in the Abbey in 1507. It was originally formed of seven panels, which were divided