Predella

A predella is a narrow horizontal strip of small painted or sculpted panels running along the base of a large altarpiece, typically illustrating narrative scenes related to the main image above — episodes from a saint's life, or scenes from Christ's Passion beneath a Madonna and Child. Positioned at eye level for the priest and close worshippers, the predella allowed for more intimate, storytelling detail than the formal, iconic register of the altarpiece's main tier, and often survives independently in museum collections after altarpieces were dismantled or sold piecemeal. The format flourished in Italian Gothic and Renaissance altarpieces from the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries, giving painters a sanctioned space for narrative experimentation within an otherwise devotional commission.