retable
A retable is a structure or element placed either on or immediately behind and above the altar or communion table of a church. At the minimum, it may be a simple shelf for candles behind an altar, but it can also be a large and elaborate structure. A retable which incorporates sculptures or paintings is often referred to as an altarpiece. • Illustration — A simple shelf retable in Yorkshire • Illustration — On one strict definition, this French 17th-century construction is a retable rather than a reredos, as it is all one construction According to the Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus Online, "A 'retable' is distinct from a 'reredos'; while the reredos typically rises from ground level behind the altar, the retable is smaller, standing either on the back of the altar itself or on a pedestal behind it.
retable
Paul Hermans · CC BY-SA 4.0
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getty · 500059419 · gnd · 7700815-7 · wikidata · Q3714446 · wikipedia · Retable
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Overview
Many altars have both a reredos and a retable." This distinction is not always upheld in common use, and the terms are often confused or used as synonyms. In several foreign languages, such as French (also using 'retable'), the usage is different, usually equating the word with the English 'reredos' or 'altarpiece', and this often leads to confusion and incorrect usage in translated texts. The Medieval Latin retrotabulum (modernized retabulum) was applied to an architectural feature set up at the back of an altar, and generally taking the form of a screen framing a picture, carved or sculptured work in wood or stone, or mosaic, or of a movable feature such as the Pala d'Oro in St Mark's Basilica, Venice, of gold, jewels and enamels. The non-English word "retable" therefore often refers to what should in English be called a reredos. The situation is further complicated by the frequent modern addition of free-standing altars in front of the old integrated altar, to allow the celebrant to face the congregation, or be closer to it. Dossal is another term that may overlap with both retable and reredos; today it usually means an altarpiece painting rising at the back of the altar to which it is attached, or a cloth usually hanging on the wall directly behind the altar. The cognate Spanish term, retablo, refers also to a reredos or retrotabulum, although in the specific context of Mexican folk art, it may refer to any two-dimensional depiction (usually a framed painting) of a saint or other Christian religious figure, as contrasted with a bulto, a three-dimensional statue of same. The retable may hold the altar cross, mostly in Protestant churches, as well as candles, flowers and other things.
Vertical construction that carries carved, sometimes painted decorations behind an altar table
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The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Retable, revision 1218299306 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
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- 1.Según el DRAE: Del b. lat. retaulus, y este del lat. retro, detrás, y tabŭla, tabla. Las fuentes discrepan sobre la identificación de tal "tabla" con las del propio retablo o con la mesa del altar: The Spanish word retablo was derived from the Latin term retro tabula for "behind the altar" (retro for back and tabula for board, tablet; the Latin tabulum means table) (Art and Faith in Mexico: The Nineteenth Century Retablo Tradition). From the low Latin retaulus (retro-tabula), something "behind the table" or altar. (The Art and Architecture of the Texas Missions - Página 218). Deriva del latín vulgar, retaulus (Latín: retro tabula, literalmente, detrás de la mesa) (Los retablos del en el sur de España, Portugal y México - Página 15). ...se pone este tablero atrás del altar, de ahí su nombre: retro tábula (Manual de arte cristiano... - Página 317)
- 2.En lengua inglesa se establece una diferencia entre dos tipologías de altarpieces, la denominada reredos y la denominada retable. Nicolas Pioch, Webmuseum, 14 Oct 2002: Altarpieces divide into two main types: the reredos, which rises from ground level behind the altar, and the retable, which stands either on the back of the altar itself or on a pedestal behind it. Many altars have both. *La etimología de "reredos" proviene del anglo-normando o del francés antiguo areredos, y este de arere (detrás -del latín ad retro-) y dos (espalda -del latín dorsum-). Dictionary of the English Language, 2000, Houghton Mifflin Company; Collins English Dictionary, HarperCollins Publishers, 1991 (The free dictionary). *The foreign "retable" is, therefore, what should in English be called a "reredos" (q.v.), though that is not in modern usage a movable feature. Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911 *REREDOS (Anglo-Fr. areredos, from arere, behind, and dos, back), an ornamental screen of stone or wood built up, or forming a facing to the wall behind an altar in a church. Reredoses are frequently decorated with representations of the Passion, niches containing statues of saints, and the like. In England these were for the most part destroyed at the Reformation or by the Puritans later; a few medieval examples, however, survive, e.g. at Christchurch, Hants. In some large cathedrals e.g. Winchester, Durham, St Albans, the reredos is a mass of splendid tabernacle work, reaching nearly to the groining. In small churches the reredos is usually replaced by a hanging or parament behind the altar, known as a dossal or dorsal. (See also Altar.) For the legality of images on reredoses in the Church of England, see Image. The use of the word reredos for the iron or brick back of an open fire-place is all but obsolete. Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911
- 3.*Giovanni Gheradini Voci e maniere di dire italiane additate a'futuri vocabolaristi, Bianchi e comp., 1838, vol. 1, pg. 646: ANCÓNA. Sust. f. Tavola dipinta, quadro... deriva dil greco Eicon... [es decir, de εἰκών -eikon, Imagen, icono-]... Alberti, il qual dice qui per "Ancona" si intende "Tavola o Quadro grande di altare". Ma, oltreche gli artisti in tal signif. speciale usano la voce "Pala"... *Architettura, 1963, pg. 117: ... al gotico, che adotta quindi la Pala o Ancóna, sotto la partitura del trittico e più frequentemente del polittico.
- 4.El retablo español, nos. 3-5 de Imafronte, 1987-1989 Retablos españoles en Centro Virtual Cervantes
- 5.Los frescos de El Salvador no se han estudiado pese a descubrirse en 1989. Sant Serní de Baiasca .
- 6.Glosario de términos en CVC (Centro Virtual Cervantes)] Glosario en UCLM (Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha]Retablo: Terminología básica ilustrada en Instituto Andaluz del Patrimonio Histórico y el Instituto de Conservación Getty (GCI).
- 7.Retablos flamencos en España, en Artehistoria
- 8.Juan José Martín González, Sagrario y manifestador en el retablo barroco español, en Imafronte, ISSN 0213-392X, N.º 12-13, 1996-1997, págs. 25-50
- 9.Retables may be lawfully used in the church of England (Liddell Beale, 1860, 14 P.C.); citado en Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911
- 10.C.M. Martín Jiménez y A. Martín Ruiz, Retablos escultóricos Renacentistas y Clasicistas, Valladolid: Diputación Provincial, 2010.
- 11.Cita DLE retablo
- 12.Agustín Tamayo, Cervantes, síntesis de la cultura española, en VV. AA., IV centenario de Cervantes, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, 1948, págs. 29-35 (reproducido en CVC): La Edad de Oro en que la trilogía Lope, Tirso, Calderón, realiza el prodigio del retablo teatral español. Retablo popular, en que se ha señalado la falta de perspectiva; defecto que venciera en España, y ya anteriormente, el hebreo Fernando de Rojas, adelantándose a Shakespeare.
- 13.Alfredo Morales, Máquinas ilusorias. Reflexiones sobre el retablo español, su historia y conservación.
- 14.* Gaby Vovelle, Michel Vovelle, Vision de la mort et de l'au-delà en Provence: d'après les autels des âmes du purgatoire XVe-XXe siècles, Armand Colin, 1970 * Michèle Ménard, Une histoire des mentalités religieuses aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles: 1000 retables de l'ancien diocèse du Mans. Préf. de Pierre Chaunu, Beauchesne, 1980, ISBN 2-7010-1014-4 * María Eugenia Ulfe, Representaciones del (y lo) indígena en los retablos peruanos, en Bulletin de l'Institut Francais d'Études Andines, 2009, n.º 38.
- 15.Victor M. Schmidt, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. Le retable en Europe du XIIe au XIVe siècle: quelques lignes d’évolution . Conferencia en el ciclo L'autel chrétien: lieu d'images, Museo del Louvre.
- 16.Frederik Hartt, Arte, Akal, 1989.
- 17.Javier Ocaña, La pintura en los altares en Amigos del Románico. Galería de imágenes de frontales románicos
- 18.La scheda ufficiale di catalogo. Fuente citada en Altare argenteo di San Jacopo
- 19.Descrizione dell'interno della Cattedrale. Fuente citada en :it:Cattedrale di San Zeno
- 20.Pierre-Yves Le Pogam, Les premiers retables (XIIe-début du XVe siècle): une mise en scène du sacré, Musée du Louvre, 2009, ISBN 88-89854-32-4
- 21.Retable depicting the Crucifixion with Eight Saints, c.1300
- 22.J. E. Justin, E. A. Kroesen, Victor Michael Schmidt (eds.) The Altar and Its Environment: 1150-1400, Brepols, 2009, ISBN 2-503-53044-3 (es publicación de las comunicaciones de un simposio que tuvo lugar en Groninga en 2006).
- 23.El DRAE recoge su etimología del francés antiguo chambrande, y dos acepciones: cada uno de los travesaños que unen entre sí las partes de una silla, de una mesa o de otro mueble, para darles mayor seguridad; y, como término arquitectónico, labor o adorno de piedra o madera, que se pone alrededor de las puertas, ventanas, chimeneas, etc. -
- 24.Pierluigi De Vecchi ed Elda Cerchiari, I tempi dell'arte, volume 1, Bompiani, Milano 1999.
- 25.Fachada telón . Jacques Le Goff (ed.), Diccionario razonado del Occidente medieval, pg. 132.
- 26.Juan Bassegoda Nonell, La catedral de Barcelona: su restauración 1968-1972, pg. 62.
- 27.Gemma Malé, Nuevas aportaciones sobre el retablo de Santo Domingo de Tamarite de Litera - iconografía, origen, promoción y datación, Anuario del Departamento de Historia y Teoría del Arte, ISSN 1130-5517, N.º 20, 2008, págs. 37-52
- 28.Alejo Fernández, en Archivo español de arte, vol. 16, nos. 55-57, pg. 133)
- 29.Ficha en la web del Prado
- 30.Artículo en Retrotabulum. Artículo en El País. Reconstrucción en El País.
- 31.Tablas de Arcenillas.
- 32.Ficha en la web del Museo Nacional de Escultura de Valladolid
- 33.La Catedral de Ourense / Recorrido - Retablo Mayor. Web oficial.
- 34.* Raymond Koechlin, Les retables français en ivoire du commencement du XIVe siècle, Monuments et mémoires de la Fondation Eugène Piot, 1906, vol. 13, n.º 13-1. * Pierres-Yves Le Pogam (dir.), Les premiers retables, Officina Italie, 2009 (catálogo de una exposición en el Louvre de cincuenta obras de los siglos al ).
- 35.Jaroslav Pesina: Der Hohenfurther Meister. Übers. von Lenka Reinerová. Prag 1982. Fuente citada en Meister von Hohenfurth
- 36.L'Altare d'argento - Termina il restauro dell’Altare d’argento e della Croce del Tesoro del Battistero di San Giovanni
- 37.André Chastel, El arte italiano, Akal, 1988, ISBN 84-7600-301-3, pg. 163. Véase imagen
- 38."Luoghi della Fede", Regione Toscana. Fuente citada en Pieve di San Giovanni Battista (San Giovanni d'Asso)
- 39.* Eve Borsook, Fiorella Gioffredi Superbi, Italian altarpieces 1250-1550: function and design, Clarendon Press, 1994.
- 40.María Jesús Gómez Bárcena, Arte y devoción en las obras importadas. Los retablos “flamencos” esculpidos tardogóticos
- 41.Un des plus grands retables flamands à Dortmund (el llamado "milagro dorado de Dortmund").
- 42.Jacques Baudoin, Les grands imagiers d'occident, Creer, 1983, ISBN 2-902894-15-5, vol. 1, pg. 213. Ángel portando los símbolos de la Pasión - Ficha en Joconde, Ángel tocando la trompeta - Ficha en Joconde.
- 43.Carved Splendor: Late Gothic Altarpieces in Southern Germany, Austria, and South Tirol, Getty Publications, 2006, ISBN 0-89236-853-5.
- 44.* Kathrin Wagner, Rostocker Retabelkunst im 15. Jahrhundert, Verlag-Ludwig, 2011, ISBN 3-86935-004-0 * Barbara G. Lane, The altar and the altarpiece: sacramental themes in early Netherlandish painting, Harper & Row, 1984, ISBN 0-06-430133-8 * Lynn F. Jacobs, Early Netherlandish Carved Altarpieces, 1380-1550: Medieval Tastes and Mass Marketing, Cambridge University Press, 1998, ISBN 0-521-47483-3
- 45.VV. AA., Las edades del Hombre: Memorias y esplendores, Fundación Las Edades del Hombre, 1999 (catálogo de la exposición).
- 46.Web oficial.
- 47.Retablos españoles en CVC
- 48.Catedrales de España - Catedral de Albarracín
- 49.Villagarcía de Campos (Valladolid). Colegiata de San Luis. Retablo Mayor. Villagarcía de Campos
- 50.Retablo mayor de la iglesia de San Millán de Quintanilla (hoy de Onésimo), de Francisco Giralte, 1568.
- 51.M. Gómez Rascón, La catedral de León, cristal y fe, Edilesa, León, 2009.
- 52.Une Histoire des mentalités religieuses aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles: mille retables de l'ancien diocèse du Mans, Beauchesne, 1980 Retables baroques de Bretagne et spiritualité au XVIIe siècle: étude sémiographique et religieuse, PUF, 1972 ,Les Ateliers de retabliers lavallois aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles: Études historique et artistique, Klincksieck, 1976
- 53.Retable du Maître Autel, 1679, Jean-Jacques Mélair
- 54.La imagen edificada: Los retablos barrocos - Andalucía barroca, Junta de Andalucía, 2009; para un entorno más restringido, como la provincia de Gerona, Laurence Gallinaro, Retables baroques de la province de Gerone (1580-1777). Etudes iconologique et socioculturelle (modes de production, diffusion et réception), tesis en la Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, 22-10-2005.
- 55.Leopoldo Fernández Gasalla, En torno a los orígenes de Miguel de Romay ya la escultura compostelana en el tránsito de los siglos al (1670-1705) , en Cuadernos de estudios gallegos, n.º 108, CSIC, 1996.
- 56.Retablo del Monasterio de Guadalupe en CVC
- 57.* Alfonso Rodríguez G. de Ceballos, El retablo barroco en Artehistoria. * Eva Pérez, Aspectos técnicos y conservativos del retablo barroco valenciano * Juan Jesús López-Guadalupe, Retórica y color - Sobre la policromía en los retablos barrocos
- 58.Alfonso Rodríguez G. de Ceballos. Evolución morfológica y estilística del retablo - Barroco español en Artehistoria.
- 59.Fausto Sanches Martins, Trono eucarístico do retábulo barroco português: origem, função, forma e simbolismo, Universidade do Porto, 1991.
- 60.Roberto Segre, América Latina en Su Arquitectura,Ed. Siglo XXI, 1981, ISBN 968-23-0273-0, pg. 160.
- 61.* Clara Bargellini, Los Retablos de la Ciudad de México: Siglos Al : Una Guía, Asociación del Patrimonio Artístico Mexicano, 2005 * Phoenix Art Museum (ed.), A Century of Retablos: The Janis and Dennis Lyon Collection of New Mexican Santos, 1780-1880, Hudson Hills, 2007, ISBN 1-55595-273-9 * Graziano Gasparini, Carlos F. Duarte, Los Retablos del Período Colonial en Venezuela, Ernesto Armianto Editor, 1971. * Ricardo González, Los retablos barrocos y la retórica cristiana
- 62.Emilio Harth-Terré, Alberto Márquez Abanto, Retablos limeños en el , 1959
- 63.Pertenece a Puebla el retablo más antiguo del Continente Americano. Efraín Castro, El retablo de Chuauhtinchán, Puebla
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1- altarpieceTerminology
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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