2-979-594 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"The Grand Altar of the Cathedral of Seville" - painted by David Roberts, R.A., 1857. Engraving of a painting showing the 'magnificent Gothic Retablo...[which] is divided into forty-four compartments, [and was] designed in 1482 by Dancart, and finished in 1550. The carvings represent scenes from the New and Old Testament. The decorations and tabernacle of the altar itself are of a much more modern date, and, including the images that surmount them, representing the Virgin and Child flanked by Apostles, are of massive silver...By machinery the curtain...is drawn asunder, and the Host in a tabernacle covered with jewels, is displayed, the concealed light falling from above and causing the precious stones to glitter in a peculiarly brilliant manner...The illustration...is due to the pencil of Mr. David Roberts, the most successful of our painters of Gothic architecture...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1857.