Retaule barroc del Miracle, Baroque altarpiece at Sanctuary of the Miracle, Riner, Spain

The Retaule barroc del Miracle is the main reredos of the Santuari del Miracle church in Riner, Solsonès. Carved from alder and pine, it measures 23 metres high and 12 metres wide and is arranged in three superimposed bodies. The lower body holds the altar and the doors to the cambril, the middle body the image of the Virgin flanked by six large saints, and the upper body a three-metre statue of Saint Martin between two angels.

Carles Morató received the commission in 1747 with a nine-year deadline, but the reredos was finished in 1758, in time for the tricentenary of the 1458 apparition of the Virgin, a date inscribed on the altar. Between 1760 and 1774 the Solsona painter Antoni Bordons carried out its polychromy and gilding.

The reredos commemorates the 1458 apparition of the Virgin to the shepherd boys Jaume and Celdoni, who were asked to profess devotion to her. A bas-relief on the tympanum above the great tabernacle shows the scene: Mary with long blonde hair and a red mantle points to heaven, one boy kneels with his staff, the other flees in fright, and sheep and angels fill the rest.

The reredos is located inside the sanctuary at a central position where visitors can view it easily. It works best to start from the front and then explore the different levels and sections to observe all the details.

The top of the reredos is crowned by two vases of flowers and four angels, above the three-metre figure of Saint Martin flanked by two angels. The altar frontal below carries a medallion with the year 1758, when the work was finished.