Exhibition
Retablos II
Spanish Paintings and Polychromed Sculpture from the 13th to 16th Centuries
Sam Fogg Gallery, London, England
18 September - 17 October 2025
The late medieval period was a time of extraordinary artistic dynamism in the Spanish kingdoms. Among its most remarkable expressions was the retablo, a type of fixed monumental altarpiece unique to the Iberian Peninsula. Positioned behind the altar table and completely filling the apse in a display of brilliant colours and shimmering gold leaf, Spanish retablos reached towering dimensions, combining panel paintings, polychromed sculptures and sumptuous traceried frames. Their scale, presence, and graphic depiction of the lives and deaths of the Christian saints made them the visual and spiritual focus of Spanish churches, framing the liturgy and guiding devotion.
Over the centuries, many retablos were dismembered as a result of renovation, changing taste, or simple decay. Most have been scattered across private collections and museums right around the world, a process which, paradoxically, often ensured their survival. Following the success of the gallery's first exhibition of Spanish late-medieval retablos in 2019, this new iteration brings together eighteen panel paintings alongside five polychromed sculptures created by artists working in the wealthy northern Spanish kingdoms of Castile and Aragon between around 1250 and 1520. Selected highlights from the exhibition can be seen below, by scrolling down this page, but a complete digital catalogue of the exhibition is available upon request.
The arresting, inventive, and iconographically complex works of art brought together for this new exhibition all reflect the rich and rapidly changing artistic climate that characterised the Iberian Peninsula during the period. The earliest paintings in the group vividly document the influence of the so-called 'International Gothic' style with its decorative stylisation, rich colour and lavish application of gold, which persisted in Spain longer than anywhere else in Europe. As we move through the fifteenth century however, we begin to discern new models and innovations introduced from Northern Europe through trade routes, itinerant artists and the circulation of drawings and prints. Rather than abandoning tradition, artists and workshops right across Spain adapted to change in remarkable, creative ways, assimilating foreign influences and transforming them into a distinctive Iberian style which, though regionally diverse, stands out for its material richness and complexity. Collectively, these astonishing and arresting works of art help to shine a searing light on the extraordinary artistic splendour of medieval Spain as it developed and evolved from the end of the Romanesque to the birth of the Renaissance.
For more information, visit https://www.samfogg.com/exhibitions/64/