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Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Westminster Retable: London's Oldest Altarpiece
National Gallery: 18 May - 4 September 2005 (Lower Floor Gallery B Admission free)
'Westminster Retable' (before restoration), about 1260-1270. Courtesy of The Dean and Chapter, Westminster Abbey, London.
The 'Westminster Retable' is widely recognised as the most important Gothic panel painting produced in the Anglo-French milieu in the late 13th century. Originally, it may have functioned as the high altarpiece of Westminster Abbey, produced under the patronage of Henry III or Edward I; after the Dissolution of the Abbey it served as part of a cupboard for the display of the royal funeral waxworks and only came to notice in 1725. Although damaged in the post-medieval period, enough survives of its extraordinarily refined and elegant paintings to stress its central place in the history of European art at this time. The painting illustrates Christ's miracles, his nature as Saviour of the World, and Saint Peter's witness to him. ...