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
Santa Maria dei Fossi Altarpiece Santa Maria dei Fossi Altarpiece The Santa Maria dei Fossi Altarpiece is a 1496-1498 painting by Pinturicchio, now in the Galleria nazionale dell'Umbria in Perugia. Unusually for an altarpiece, it is painted on canvas stretched over wooden panels. It was commissioned for the high altar of the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Perugia, also known as Santa Maria dei Fossi. The contract for the work is dated 14 February 1496 and contains detailed instructions for its production and for its wooden frame by Mattia di Tommaso da Reggio, which imitated the architecture of the church's facade. The painter