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February 5

Gottvater im Auszug

I found the phrase "Gottvater im Auszug" in St. Sylvester, Schwabing and got nowhere with Google translate. It seems to relate to the picture (right) and the article de:Altarauszug, so I translated it as "The figure of God the Father at the top of the altar" but I would be interested to know if there is a word or phrase for (Altar)auszug in English and in any information on the subject in English. TSventon (talk) 19:00, 5 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The term used in English for a decorative screen behind an altar is an altarpiece or reredos, but the article you linked seems to specifically point to a sort of frieze on top of that. Alansplodge (talk) 22:40, 5 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The Grove Encyclopedia of Medieval Art and Architecture, Volume 2 (p. 516) under the entry for Schnitzaltar says:

Placed on both the high altar and side altars, and carved of native woods (mainly limewood and pine), Schnitzaltäre consist of four essential sections: a central shrine (Ger. Schrein; Lat. and Ger. Corpus) containing sculpture rests on a smaller shrine commonly referred to by the Italian term predella (Ger. Sarg); moveable pairs of shutters or wings (Ger. Flügel), bearing either paintings or relief carvings on both front and back, are attached to the shrine and to the predella; and the shrine is always crowned with an architecture-like superstructure (Ger. Auszug) consisting of carved tracery and sculpture niches. Most examples are profusely coloured and gilded.

So it would seem that there isn't an English term for "Auszug" in this context - I would suggest "top of the altarpiece" (the altar itself being generally a rectangular table). Alansplodge (talk) 23:20, 5 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

For lack of an English equivalent, a book may leave the term untranslated.^[1] But texts tend to use superstructure in the explanation or as an English substitute; see The Grove Encyclopedia quoted above, the book linked to in the previous sentence, and some others ([2], [3]). --Lambiam 01:11, 6 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you all, I have updated the article. TSventon (talk) 12:04, 6 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]