Altarpiece unclear. Altarpieces can still broadly be divided into two types, the "reredos", which signifies a large and often complex wooden or stone altarpiece, and the "retable", an altarpiece with panels either painted or with reliefs. Retables are placed directly on the altar or on a surface behind it; a reredos typically rises from the floor. Retable-type altarpieces are often made up of two or more separate panels created using a technique known as panel painting. The panels can also display reliefs or sculpture in the round, either polychrome or un-painted. It is then called a diptych, triptych or polyptych for
Trinity Altarpiece Trinity Altarpiece The Trinity Altarpiece, also known as the Trinity Altar Panels, is a set of four paintings in oil on wood thought to have been commissioned for the Trinity College Kirk in Edinburgh, Scotland, in the late fifteenth century. The work is attributed to the Flemish artist Hugo van der Goes and probably represents the inner and outer panels of the wings of a triptych. The presumed central panel is lost. The painting in the church was described as a "burd" on 17 May 1516 when John Stewart, Duke of Albany made an offering at the high altar on