page_title: Westminster Retable
hierarchical_section_title: Westminster Retable
caption_attribution_description: The Westminster Retable
context_page_description: The Westminster Retable, the oldest known panel painting altarpiece in England, is estimated to have been painted in the 1270s in the circle of Plantagenet court painters, for Westminster Abbey, very probably for the high altar. It is thought to have been donated by Henry III of England as part of his Gothic redesign of the Abbey. The painting survived only because it was incorporated into furniture between the 16th and 19th centuries, and much of it has been damaged beyond restoration. According to one specialist, the "Westminster Retable, for all its wounded condition, is the finest panel painting of its time in Western Europe."
  In 1998 the Hamilton Kerr Institute in Cambridge, with support from the Getty Foundation and the Heritage Lottery Fund, began a six-year project to clean and conserve what remained of the work. Upon completion, it was displayed at the National Gallery, London for four months in 2005 before being returned to Westminster Abbey, where it was on display in the museum.
context_section_description: The Westminster Retable, the oldest known panel painting altarpiece in England, is estimated to have been painted in the 1270s in the circle of Plantagenet court painters, for Westminster Abbey, very probably for the high altar. It is thought to have been donated by Henry III of England as part of his Gothic redesign of the Abbey. The painting survived only because it was incorporated into furniture between the 16th and 19th centuries, and much of it has been damaged beyond restoration. According to one specialist, the "Westminster Retable, for all its wounded condition, is the finest panel painting of its time in Western Europe."
  In 1998 the Hamilton Kerr Institute in Cambridge, with support from the Getty Foundation and the Heritage Lottery Fund, began a six-year project to clean and conserve what remained of the work. Upon completion, it was displayed at the National Gallery, London for four months in 2005 before being returned to Westminster Abbey, where it was on display in the museum.
caption: The Feeding of the Five Thousand; one of the better-preserved sections of the altarpiece
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