!!!Verduner Altar

Verdun Altar, an important work of Romanesque enamel art (sunk enamel) 
on gilded copperplates, made in 1181 by order of provost Wernher of 
Klosterneuburg by the Lorraine enamel artist and goldsmith Nikolaus 
von Verdun (b. before 1150 Verdun, d. after 1205) as 
panelling for a pulpit parapet; after fire damage (1330), the 51 
enamel panels were reassembled in 1331 to form a wing altar in three 
parts for the provost Stephans von Sierndorf, and 6 panels were 
restored in the style of the 12%%sup th/%  century. At the same time 4 
panel paintings by the artist were added to the rear sides of the 
Verdun altar; these are the oldest specimens of panel painting in 
Central Europe; the extensive inscriptions on the frame provide 
information on how the enamel panels were made and completed and what 
they depict: pictures from the Old and the New Testament representing 
the entire history of the Salvation. Today the Verdun Altar is 
displayed in the St. Leopold chapel (former chapter house) of 
Klosterneuburg Abbey and serves as an altar at the grave of Margrave 
Leopold III, while the panels of the rear side of the altar are 
exhibited in the abbey museum.

!Literature
H. Buschhausen, Der Verduner Altar, 1980; F. Dahm, Studien 
zur Ikonographie des Klosterneuburger Emailwerkes des Nikolaus von 
Verdun, doctoral thesis, Vienna 1988.


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