Pruszcz Polyptych.

Colijn de Coter's Pruszcz Polyptych in the National Museum in Warsaw represents a major multi-panel altarpiece commission typical of Netherlandish church furnishing. Such polyptychs were complex liturgical objects that could be opened and closed according to the liturgical calendar, revealing different images for feast days and ordinary time. The tempera medium required careful preparation on a gessoed panel and a disciplined layering technique that produced precise, durable surfaces suited to the intricate detail expected of devotional painting.

The polyptych format distributes multiple narrative and devotional scenes across interconnected panels, rendered in de Coter's vigorous Brussels manner with consistent figure style and dramatic lighting throughout the ensemble.