The original colours of the Järva-Madise retable
The coating of the typically baroque brightly coloured retable with brown graining imitating wood was probably based on the brownish overall colouring of the altar painting of 1866. The 19 th century marble fad, however, was behind the decision to paint the retable’s columns and figures white – whoever does not know that the retable’s statues have been carved out of wood can easily consider them to be marble sculptures.