Zum Umgang mit den fehlenden Reliefs des Landkirchener Retabels

um 1380 in der Stiftung Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesmuseen, Schloss Gottorf in Schleswig

Abstract

A way how to deal with lost reliefs of the “Landkirchener retabel”

The Landkirchen altar of c. 1380, now in the Stiftung der Schleswig-Holstein Landesmuseen, Schloss Gottorf, is one of the most valuable altars in North Germany, due to its extraordinary quality of the original polychrome surface. Already in 1898 when the altar was acquired, three and a half reliefs had been lost. Panels of a coniferous wood with a green glaze, following the original outlines, were put in their place in the 1980s. Their visual dominance and hence the incorrect iconographic interpretation led to the idea of replacing them by new elements of a different form. The difficulty of enhancing the present state led to the decision to refrain from any kind of substitute and to present the altar in the state in which it was found, together with an explanatory text.