Wilton Diptych execution of Charles I. Wilton Diptych The Wilton Diptych () is a small portable diptych of two hinged panels, painted on both sides, now in the National Gallery, London. 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 donor portrait. He is presented to them by his patron saint, John the Baptist, and by the English royal saints Edward the Confessor and Edmund the Martyr. The painting is an
Altarpiece Reformation regarded the Word of God – that is, the gospel – as central to Christendom, and Protestant altarpieces often displayed the actual words from the bible, sometimes at the expense of pictures. With time, Protestant though gave birth to the so-called pulpit altar, or "Kanzelaltar" in German, in which the altarpiece and the pulpit are combined, thus making the altarpiece quite literally the abode of the Word of God. Canvas painting started to replace other types of altarpieces during the mid-16th century and onwards. The Middle Ages was the heyday of the production and use of altarpieces. While many