IV. The Discoveries of the Westminster Retable

Abstract

The Westminster Retable is the most important thirteenth-century panel painting to survive from northern Europe and, quite arguably, from all of western Europe (pl. XXVIa). An oak panel measuring approximately 0.95m high by 3.33m wide, it is divided vertically into five compartments. In the centre is the figure of Christ, standing, blessing and holding in his left hand an orb or globe upon which is painted a delicate miniature landscape (pl. XXVIb). He is flanked by the Virgin Mary and St John the Evangelist who both hold palm fronds. Iconographically this grouping is unique in medieval art. Each figure stands in an architectural niche of high Gothic design. To either side of the central group are four medallions arranged in the Islamic star-and-cross pattern. Each of these eight-pointed star medallions contained a narrative scene, of which three on the left survive: the Raising of the Daughter of Jairus, the Healing of the Blind Man and the Feeding of the Five Thousand (pl. XXVIc). Such miracle scenes from the adult life of Christ were but rarely depicted in the Middle Ages. At either end of the panel are niches for standing figures of saints; only St Peter on the left survives, although ghostly vestiges of his counterpart, presumably St Paul, on the right remain visible.