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
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