Winged altarpiece Winged altarpiece A winged altarpiece (also "folding altar") or winged retable is a special form of altarpiece (reredos, occasionally retable), common in Central Europe, in which the fixed shrine or "corpus" can be enclosed by two (triptych), four (pentaptych) or more (polyptych) movable wings. The technical terms are derived from : "trís" or "triple"; πέντε: "pénte" or "five"; πολύς: "polýs" or "many"; and πτυχή: "ptychē" or "fold, layer". Because the winged altar can display different scenes on weekdays, Sundays or holidays, based on the motifs and type of decoration (painted panels or reliefs), it is also called a liturgical altar.
Diptych of Philip de Croÿ with The Virgin and Child Diptych of Philip de Croÿ with The Virgin and Child The Diptych of Philip de Croÿ with The Virgin and Child consists of a pair of small oil-on-oak panels painted c. 1460 by the Netherlandish artist Rogier van der Weyden. While the authorship and dating of both works are not in doubt, it is believed but not proven that they were created as wings of a devotional diptych and that at some unknown time the panels were broken apart. A diptych panel fitting the description of the Mary wing was described in a 1629 inventory of paintings owned by Alexandre