Adoration of the Trinity, also known as the Landauer Altarpiece, is an oil painting on the panel created by the German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer from 1509 to 1511. It is 1.35 meters high and 1.23 meters wide and is now in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria.
The painting was commissioned by The wealthy Nuremberg merchant Matthäus Landauer to dedicate it to the church of the Holy Trinity and All the Saints.
The Christian doctrine of "Trinity" defines God as a God who exists in three equal, homogeneous, identical persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ Christ), and God the Holy Spirit, all of whom share an essence. Three persons define "who God is," while the same essence defines "what God is." This doctrine is called "Trinitarianism", its adherents are called "Trinitarians", and its opponents are called "Antitrinitarians" or "Nontrinitarians". Non-Trinitarian positions include "Unitarianism," "Binitarianism," and "Modalism."
This altarpiece depicts the Trinity: Jesus, still alive, crucified. Behind him, God the Father wears a crown and a gilded cloak that holds up the cross of Jesus. The cloak of God the Father is lined with green, very wide, and carried by angels on both sides. In the cloud of light at the top is the Holy Spirit incarnated as a dove. The two sides of the Holy Spirit are surrounded by Cherubim.
To the left and right of Jesus are numerous female and male saints in heaven led by Virgin Mary and John the Baptist.
Below, the clergy of men and women, led by the Pope on the left, and the common faithful, led by the Holy Roman Emperor on the right. This arrangement is similar to that found in Dürer's Feast of the Rosary, written in 1506.
In the clergy crowd in the lower left of the painting is an old man with white hair, who is the patron of the painting, Mateus Landauer. He was dressed in ornate clothes, took off his hat, and was talking to a cardinal beside him.
In the crowd of believers at the bottom right of the picture is a mysterious queen, her face wrapped around the veil, revealing only her eyes.
At the very bottom of the picture is a vast landscape: the golden sun shines on the vast lake at sunrise and between the mountains on both sides.
On the grass in the lower right corner there is also a self-portrait of Dürer, holding a sign in his hand that reads in Latin: "Albertus Durerus Noricus faciebat 1511", meaning: "Albrecht Dürer from Hungary made in 1511". Dürer's father, Albrecht Dürer Sr., was a Hungarian who moved from Gyula, Hungary, to Nuremberg, Germany, in 1455.
In this work, Dürer blended portraits, self-portraits, depictions of religious figures, landscapes and plants, and borrowed from Italian altarpieces.
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World Famous Painting Appreciation: Dürer's Adoration of the Trinity
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