English or French (?), 'The Wilton Diptych', about 1395-9
About the work
Overview
This small, portable diptych is one of a handful of English panel paintings to have survived from the Middle Ages. Made for Richard II, King of England from 1377 to 1399, in the last five years of his life, it combines religious and secular imagery to embody his personal conception of kingship.
On the inside the King is presented to the Virgin and Christ Child by Edmund and Edward the Confessor, England’s patron saints, and his personal patron, John the Baptist. Richard holds out his hands to give or receive the standard with the red and white cross, the arms of Saint George. Christ raises his hand to bless the standard and with it, Richard’s rule.
Richard’s emblem of a white hart, or stag, is shown on the outside, and as badges worn by the host of angels. The King adopted this symbol from his mother, but it also acted as a visual pun on his name (Richart in French).
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Richard II presented to the Virgin and Child by his Patron Saint John the Baptist and Saints Edward and Edmund ('The Wilton Diptych')
- Artist
- English or French (?)
- Date made
- about 1395-9
- Medium and support
- egg tempera on wood
- Dimensions
- 53 × 37 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Bought with a special grant and contributions from Samuel Courtauld, Viscount Rothermere, C.T. Stoop and the Art Fund, 1929
- Inventory number
- NG4451
- Location
- Gallery B
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Previous owners
- Frame
- 14th-century English or French Frame (original frame)
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in ‘National Gallery Catalogues: Online Entries’, London 2024; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Exhibition history
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2015SoundscapesThe National Gallery (London)8 July 2015 - 6 September 2015
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2024National TreasuresThe Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology10 May 2024 - 1 September 2024
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2024Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350The National Gallery (London)8 March 2025 - 22 June 2025
Bibliography
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1724J. Anstis, The Register of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, London 1724
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1731C. Gambarini, A Description of the Earl of Pembroke's Pictures, London 1731
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1751R. Cowdry, A Description of the Pictures, Statues, Busto's, Basso-Relievo's, and Other Curiosities at the Earl of Pembroke's House at Wilton, London 1751
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1757A. van der Doort, A Catalogue and Description of King Charles the First's Capital Collection of Pictures, Limnings, Statues, Bronzes, Medals, and Other Curiosities: Now Published from an Original Manuscript in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, the Whole Transcribed…by the Late Ingenious Mr Vertue, ed. G. Vertue, London 1757
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1758J. Kennedy, A New Description of the Pictures, Statues, Salisbury 1758
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1766T. Martyn, The English Connoisseur, London 1766
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1786J. Kennedy, A Description of the New Antiquities and Curiosities in Wilton House, Sarum 1786
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1820S.H. Spiker, Travels Through England, Wales and Scotland in the Year 1816, London 1820
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1836J.D. Passavant, Tour of a German Artist in England, London 1836
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1838G.F. Waagen, Works of Art and Artists in England, trans. H. Lloyd, vol. 2, London 1838
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1854G.F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being and Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss. […], vol. 2, trans. E. Eastlake, London 1854
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1882G. Scharf, Description of the Wilton House Diptych Containing a Contemporary Portrait of King Richard II, London 1882
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1895C. Coupe, 'An Old Picture', The Month, LXXXIV, 1895, pp. 229-42
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1907N. Wilkinson, Wilton House Pictures: Containing a Full and Complete Catalogue, London 1907
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1909L.H. Cust, 'Portraits of Richard II', in Exhibition Illustrative of Early English Portraiture, London 1909, pp. 16-22
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1928A.E. Popham, 'The Wilton Diptych', Apollo, VIII, 1928, pp. 317-8
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1929W.G. Constable, 'The Date and Nationality of the Wilton Diptych', The Burlington Magazine, LV/316, 1929, pp. 36-45
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1929M. Conway, 'The Wilton Diptych', The Burlington Magazine, LV/320, 1929, pp. 208-12
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1929H. Thurston, 'The Wilton Diptych', The Month, 1929, pp. 27-37
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1929G. Vertue, 'Vertue Note Books, I', The Walpole Society, XVIII, 1930
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1931A.C. Barnes and V. de Mazia, The French Primitives and Their Forms, Merion 1931
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1931P.-A. Lemoisne, Gothic Painting in France. Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, Florence 1931
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1931C.R. Beard, 'The Wilton Diptych: English!', The Connoisseur, 1931
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1931M.V. Clarke, 'The Wilton Diptych', The Burlington Magazine, LVIII, 1931, pp. 283-94
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1933F.H. Cripps-Day, 'The Wilton Diptych: English!', The Connoisseur, XCI, 1933, pp. 167-9
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1934W. Shaw, 'The Early English School of Portraiture', The Burlington Magazine, LXV, 1934, pp. 171-84
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1935G. Vertue, 'Vertue Note Books, IV', The Walpole Society, XXIV, 1936
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1936T. Borenius, 'Das Wilton Diptychon', Pantheon, 1936, pp. 209-14
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1942V.H. Galbraith, 'A New Life of Richard II', History, XXVI/104, 1942, pp. 223-39
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1946Martin Davies, National Gallery Catalogues: French School, London 1946
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1947T. Bodkin, The Wilton Diptych, London 1947
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1948J. Evans, 'The Wilton Diptych Reconsidered', Archaeological Journal, CV, 1948, pp. 1-6
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1949J. Harvey, 'Letter: The Wilton Diptych', The Month, II, 1949, pp. 433-5
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1949E.W. Tristram, 'The Wilton Diptych, I', The Month, 1949, pp. 379-90
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1950E.W. Tristram, 'The Wilton Diptych, II', The Month, 1950, pp. 18-36
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1950E.W. Tristram, 'The Wilton Diptych, III', The Month, 1950, pp. 234-8
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1951M.C. Bradbrook, Shakespeare and Elizabethan Poetry, London 1951
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1952M. Galway, 'The Wilton Diptych: A Postscript', Archaeological Journal, CVII, 1952, pp. 9-14
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1953E. Panofsky, Early Netherlandish Painting: Its Origins and Character, Cambridge 1953
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1954M. Rickert, Painting in Britain: The Middle Ages, Harmondsworth 1954
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1954F. Wormald, 'The Wilton Diptych', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 1954, pp. 191-203
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1955E.W. Tristram, English Wall-Painting of the Fourteenth Century, London 1955
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1957Martin Davies, National Gallery Catalogues: French School, 2nd edn (revised), London 1957
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1958O. Millar, 'Abraham van Der Doort's Catalogue of the Collections of Charles I', The Walpole Society, XXXVII, 1960, pp. 1-249
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1961J.H. Harvey, 'The Wilton Diptych: A Re-Examination', Archaelogia, XCVIII, 1961, pp. 1-28
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1971S. Whittingham, 'The Chronology of the Portraits of Richard II', The Burlington Magazine, 1971
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1976T. Borenius and E.W. Tristram, English Medieval Painting, New York 1976
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1980D. Sutton, 'The World of Sacheverell Sitwell - Part II', Apollo, 1980
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1981S. Whittingham, 'The Date of the Wilton Diptych', Gazette des beaux-arts, XCVIII, 1981, pp. 145-50
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1981M. Bath, 'The White Hart, the Cerf Volant, and the Wilton Diptych', in Third International Beast Epic, Fable, and Fabliau Colloquium, Cologne 1981, pp. 24ff
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1986M. Scott, A Visual History of Costume: The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, London 1986
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1987M. Bath, 'Imperial renovatio Symbolism in the "Très riches heures"', Simiolus, XVII/1, 1987, pp. 5-22
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1987S. Ferris, 'The Wilton Diptych and the Absolutism of Richard II', Journal of the Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association, VIII, 1987
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1987P. Tudor-Craig, 'Panel Painting', in J.J. Alexander and P. Binski (eds), Age of Chivalry: Art in Plantagenet England, London 1987, pp. 131-6
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1988M.-H. Santrot, Entre France et Angleterre: Le duché de Bretagne: Essai d'iconographie des ducs de Bretagne, Nantes 1988
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1988C.T. Wood, Joan of Arc and Richard Iii: Sex, Saints, and Government in the Middle Ages, New York 1988
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1988J. Mills and R. White, 'Analyses of Paint Media', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, XII, 1988, pp. 78-9
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1990A. Dülberg, Privatporträts: Geschichte und Ikonologie einer Gattung im 15. und 16. Jahrhundert., Berlin 1990
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1991J. Dunkerton et al., Giotto to Dürer: Early Renaissance Painting in the National Gallery, New Haven 1991
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1992M. Bath, The Image of the Stag: Iconographic Themes in Western Art, Baden Baden 1992
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1992R. Lightbown, Mediaevel European Jewellery, with a Catalogue of the Collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London 1992
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1992D. Gordon, 'A New Discovery in the Wilton Diptych', The Burlington Magazine, CXXXIV/1075, 1992, pp. 662-8
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1992S. Wright, 'The Author Portraits in the Bedford Psalter-Hours: Gower, Chaucer and Hoccleve', British Library Journal, XVIII, 1992, pp. 190-201
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1993M. Bailey, 'Two Kings, Their Armies, and Some Jugs: The Ashanti Ewer', Apollo, CXXXVIII, 1993, pp. 387-90
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1993M.O. Renger, 'The Calvary of Hendrick van Rijn', Jaarboek Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen, 1993, pp. 9-45
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1993P. Taglianini, 'Il dittico Wilton. Lo stato degli studi sul problema iconologico e storiografico', Storia dell'arte, 1993, pp. 134-55
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1993D. Gordon, The Wilton Diptych (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 15 September - 12 December 1993), London 1993
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1994H. Belting and C. Kruse, Die Erfindung des Gemäldes: Das erste Jahrhundert der niederländischen Malerei, Munich 1994
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1994G. Freuler, Bartolo di Fredi Cini, Disentis 1994
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1994P. Binski, 'Tagungen: The Wilton Diptych and Court Art in the Reign of Richard II: Symposium, London, the National Gallery, November 5-6, 1993', Kunstchronik, 1994, pp. 188-90
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1994U. Ilg, 'Ein Wiederentdecktes Inventar der Goldschmiedearbeiten Richards II. von England und Seine Bedeutung für die Ikonographie des Wiltondiptychons', Pantheon, 1994, pp. 10-6
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1994R. Godfrey, Wenceslaus Hollar: A Bohemian Artist in England (exh. cat. Yale Center for British Art, 16 November 1994 - 22 January 1995), New Haven 1994
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1995P. Binski, Westminster Abbey and the Plantagenets: Kingship and the Representation of Power 1200-1400, New Haven 1995
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1995R. White and J. Pilc, 'Analyses of Paint Media', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, XVI, 1995, pp. 85-95
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1996U. Ilg, Das Wiltondiptychon: Stil Und Ikonographie, Berlin 1996
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1996R. Godfrey, 'Hollar's Prints for the Earl of Arundel: Copies of Lost Works from the Arundel Collection', Apollo, CXLIV/414, 1996, pp. 36-8
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1996E.L. Scheifele, 'The Artistic Patronage of Richard II: Court Style or Court Image', in D.G. Wilkins and R.L. Wilkins (eds), The Search for a Patron in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Lewiston NY 1996, pp. 63-77
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1997R.W. Sullivan, 'The Wilton Diptych: Mysteries, Majesty, and a Complex Exchange of Faith and Power', Gazette des beaux-arts, 1997, pp. 1-18
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1997C. Vannutelli, 'Nuove indagini sul dittico Wilton', Arte Cristiana, 1997, pp. 173-8
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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2004P. Nuttall, From Flanders to Florence: The Impact of Netherlandish Painting, 1400-1500, New Haven 2004
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2024The National Gallery, National Gallery Catalogues: Online Entries for Individual Paintings, London 2024
Frame
Both panels in this fourteenth-century diptych have integral frames. The frames are recess carved, with the front frames deeper than those on the reverses. The front frames feature a top frieze with a narrow hollow and two astragal mouldings that enclose the painted surfaces. In contrast, the reverse side has a simpler design, with a top frieze and cavetto stepping. The two panels are connected by the original iron hinges, which were once gilded and are partially embedded in the sides of the panels.
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.