3300 - Altar.

Altar. Design for an altar. Elevation, profile view, German ground plan, 1st half of the 18th century. Pen-and-ink drawing in black, with gray wash, watercolor in red, edged with a delicate pen-and-ink line, with indication of scale, on handmade paper. 47,4 : 33,3 cm. Damage to margins repaired upper right, overall not quite fresh. The altar with protruding columns at the sides shows the Heart of Jesus in the excerpt, from which flames and the cross emerge. Depictions of the Sacred Heart were widespread around three quarters of a century after the vision of St. Mary Margaret Allacoque in 1673. The striking prominence of the monstrance, which was presumably intended to be backed by a reddish marble slab instead of an altarpiece, expresses the gift of Christ's love and passion in the form of the Holy Eucharist in addition to the iconography of the Sacred Heart. There are cross-sections on both sides of the depiction, through the pillar structure on the left and through the altar mensa and tabernacle on the right. The ground plan of the altar architecture is shown below the design.