Wilton Diptych

The Wilton Diptych (c.1395-1399) is a small portable diptych of two hinged panels, painted on both sides. It is an extremely rare survival of a late Medieval religious panel painting from England. The diptych was painted for King Richard II of England who is depicted kneeling before the Virgin and Child in what is known as a "votive portrait". The painting is an outstanding example of the International Gothic style, and the nationality of the unknown artist is probably French or English. It belongs to the National Gallery, London.

Description

The left panel

"The Wilton Diptych" is painted on two panels of Baltic oak, set in frames of the same material and joined by two hinges so that it may be closed to protect the inner painting.

When closed, the diptych reveals on one side a white stag, Richard's emblem with a golden coronet around its throat and a golden chain, set on a gold field and black ground. On the other is a coat of arms associated with King Edward the Confessor and impaled with the arms of England. The arms of Edward are not genuine, as coats-of-arms were not invented in the eleventh century when he lived. Richard's arms were used from 1395 and so may be used to date the work to within the last five years of his reign.

In the left inner panel the kneeling King Richard II is presented by the Saints John the Baptist, Edward the Confessor and Edmund the Martyr. In the right hand panel the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child in her arms is surrounded by eleven angels, against a golden background and field of delicately coloured flowers.

The painting is in tempera, the ground paint being mixed with egg yolk and laid in thin glazes. The background and many details are inlaid with gold leaf and in places the panel has been tooled beneath the gilding to enhance the decorative quality. In the panel with the Virgin and Christ Child, the garments are universally blue, the pigment coming from the semi-precious stone lapis lazuli. Richard's robe is of vermilion, another expensive pigment.

Although thematically linked, the composition of the two pictures is quite different in feeling. The scene of Richard and his patrons is very sedate, but full of rich contrasts in colour and texture. The scene of the Virgin and Child is full of energetic movement created by the angels who encircle the mother and child. The predominant brilliant blue gives a precious quality, symbolising the Heavenly nature of this apparition. The flowery ground also symbolises the gardens of Paradise. The strong tonal contrast of the angel's wings throw the figures into relief against the background.

Interpretation

The right panel

The identity of the kneeling king is known because the angels surrounding the Virgin are wearing the livery of Richard II, the White Hart, which also appears in the brocade of the left panel and the outside of the diptych. As Richard kneels, the Christ Child reaches towards him in benediction and also reaches towards the pennant held by an angel, and significantly placed between them. This pennant is the symbol of Richard's kingship and of the Kingdom of England as a whole, It bears the Cross of St. George, the symbol of England and furthermore surmounting the staff is an orb on which is a tiny map of England.

All three saints who present the kneeling Richard to the Virgin and Child are believed to have been venerated by the king, as each has his own chapel in Westminster Abbey. Each saint holds the symbollic attribute by which they are recognised in art. Edmund the Martyr, who stands to the left, holds the arrow which killed him in 869, while Edward the Confessor, at the centre, holds the ring he gave to a pilgrim who transpired to be the disguised John the Evangelist. John the Baptist (right) holds his symbol, the Lamb of God.

The scene makes reference to King Richard's birth on 6th January, the feast of Epiphany, when Christ was adored by three kings, often depicted in similar compositions to this. At this date the feast of the Baptism of Christ by John the Baptist was celebrated on the same day and the figure of John in his usual hermit's dress, carrying a lamb, recalls the shepherds, whose visit after the birth of Christ was often combined in the same scene as the visit of the Magi or three kings. There was also a story that Richard's birth in Bordeaux in France was attended by the Kings of Spain, Navarre, and Portugal.

John the Baptist was Richard's patron saint, and Saint Edward and Saint Edmund had both been English kings. Richard had a special devotion to Edmund, who with St. George is one of the patron saints of England.

The painting is indicative of both Richard's belief in his divine right to rule and his genuine Christian devotion. It also importantly symbolises (in the form of the Pennant), Richard II giving his kingdom into the hands of the Holy Virgin, thereby continuing a long tradition by which England was known as "Our Lady's Dowry" and was thought to be specially under her protection.

Date and authorship

The date of the Wilton Diptych has been the subject of considerable controversy among art historians. The National Gallery follow a broad current concensus in dating the painting to the last five years of Richard's reign, but dates between 1377 and about 1413 have been proposed. Richard was born in 1367, and the portrait seems to be of a younger man than the twenty-eight year-old he was in 1395. It has been suggested that the eleven angels each represent a year of his age at the start of his actual reign, which began in 1377, when he gave eleven of the coins called angels to "Our Lady of the Pew" at Westminster Abbey. The painting would then have been made more than fifteen years later to commemorate the moment. Alternatively the painting might represent Richard's reception into heaven after his death in 1399, though given the circumstances of his deposition, who would have commisioned such a work in the next reign is unclear. The artist has never been identified, and the closest resemblences to his style come in some illuminated manuscripts from the 1410s. Because the International Gothic style was widespread in Europe, the nationality of its painter cannot be ascertained. Theories abound in favor of the artist being English, French or Italian, and some art historians point to the possibility of a Bohemian artist, perhaps brought to England by Richard II's first wife, Anne of Bohemia. The exquisite quality of the painting is thought by most art historians to indicate that the artist was probably from Northern France. It shows similarities to the manuscript painting of Pol de Limbourg.

Provenance

The painting was first documented in 1649 in an inventory of the art collection of Charles I. It passed to the Earls of Pembroke who kept it at Wilton House, from which it takes its name, until it was bought by the National Gallery in 1929. That it remained intact is remarkable because little religious pictorial art survived the Puritan iconoclasm that followed the execution of Charles I.

See also

• British art
• Our Lady Of Westminster

References

• Langmuir, Erica, The National Gallery companion guide, 1997 revised edition, National Gallery, London, ISBN 185709218X
• "Levey (1971)": Michael Levey, Painting at Court, Weidenfeld and Nicholson, London, 1971
• "Levey (1987)": Levey, Michael , The National Gallery Collection, 1987, National Gallery Publications, ISBN 0947645349
• Tudor-Craig, Pamela, in: Jonathan Alexander & Paul Binski (eds), Age of Chivalry, Art in Plantagenet England, 1200-1400, Royal Academy/Weidenfeld & Nicholson, London 1987

External links

• The Wilton Diptych on the National Gallery website