In English, sacred conversation. An image in a single pictorial field of the Virgin and Child surrounded by saints from different times in history who interact with each other through gestures and glances, or with the viewer. The sacra conversazione representations supplanted the earlier multipaneled altarpieces that featured a hierarchic arrangement of these sacred figures. Italian examples of this new type include Domenico Veneziano's St. Lucy Altarpiece (c. 1445-1447; Florence, Uffizi), one of the earlier Renaissance sacra conversazione renditions, Sandro Botticelli's Bardi Altarpiece (1484; Berlin, Staatliche Museen), and Giovanni Bellini's San Zaccaria Altarpiece (1505) in the Church of San Zaccaria, Venice. Among the Northern examples are Hans von Kulmbach's Tucher Altarpiece (1513; Nuremberg, Church of Sebald) and Hans Memlinc's St. John Altarpiece (1474-1479), this last painted for the chapel of the Hospital of St. John in Bruges, now the Memlingmuseum.
Historical dictionary of Renaissance art. Lilian H. Zirpolo. 2008.