Meaning
I N F O R M A T I O N

What Is It?

predella   An Italian word for the small strip of paintings which forms the lower edge or socle of a large altarpiece (pala). This is usually a polyptych consisting of a principal, central panel with subsidiary side and/or top panels, and a predella: the predella usually has narrative scenes from the lives of the saints who are represented in the panels above. Because of the small size of predelle they are not usually more that 10-12 inches high, though often relatively very wide - they were frequently used for pictorial experiments that the painter did not wish to risk making in the larger panels. The first datable example seems to be that in Simone Martini's St Louis of Toulouse (1317: Naples). The original purpose of a predella was to enable the wings of a polyptych to swing shut over the altar.

Source: The Penguin Dictionary of Art and Artists (Penguin Reference Books)

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Leonardo
Michelangelo | Raphael | Andrea del Verrocchio | Botticelli
Donatello | Fra Angelico | Giotto | Caravaggio
Titian | Gentile Bellini