Abstract
Painted polyptych altarpieces appeared on high altars in late Duecento in the churches of mendicant orders. They were characterized by a special manner of organizing visual material by juxtaposing single half-figures with each other and arranging them in rows and columns, allowing no room for narrative elements, widely used at that time in panel painting. Such narrative-free character of main altarpieces would be preserved throughout the whole period of their popularity. However, polyptychs created in late Trecento integrated narrative scenes and even entire cycles into the structure of the altarpieces, which required new approaches to composition and to the use of pictorial space. The article examines the role of narrative content in altarpieces of late Trecento and discusses the origins and development of this new style.
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