Rode Altar. Altarpiece of the High Altar of Tallinn St Nicholas’ Church

The Niguliste Museum, a branch of the Art Museum of Estonia, houses one of the most outstanding and best preserved late-medieval northern German altarpieces in the whole of Europe. This book provides an overview of the altarpiece’s history, and presents and explains its pictorial programme. The richly illustrated book also includes stories related to the saints depicted on the altarpiece.

Thus, it serves two functions: it is a handbook that provides insights into the meaning of the work of art, and a local lexicon of saints. The altarpiece of the high altar of St Nicholas’ Church in Tallinn was commissioned from the workshop of Hermen Rode, the Lübeck master, and was made in 1478−1481. The altarpiece was one of the most expensive and elaborate works in the art production of Lübeck that was commissioned from abroad. Another remarkable fact is that the altarpiece has stood in its original place ─ with the exception of only a few short periods ─ for more than 500 years. The magnificent reredos was made for one of the two parish churches of the town, and it displayed the local community’s cult of saints, with more than 40 different saints and biblical characters. The choice of characters shows which saints were significant for the people of late-medieval Tallinn.