A Reconstruction and Reinterpretation of Guillaume Fillastre's Altarpiece of St.-Bertin

Abstract

In 1455, Abbot Guillaume Fillastre commissioned the Altarpiece of St.-Bertin for the main altar of the church of St.-Bertin at St.-Omer in the north of France. This was an imposing altar made of gilded silver plaques and adorned with finely crafted statuettes of precious metal. Two wooden shutters, painted with religious scenes, were designed to cover and protect the sculptured figures. Visitors to the church agreed that the altarpiece was artistically distinctive and of extraordinary richness and craftsmanship. Dom Charles de Witte, the eighteenth-century archivist at St.-Bertin, wrote that Fillastre had placed in his church a “most rich and splendid altarpiece adorned with an infinitude of precious stones which he had made in Valenciennes and which all the antiquarians and foreign visitors still admire today and consider to be an invaluable chef d'oeuvre.”1