Christ and the Virgin Diptych Christ and the Virgin Diptych The Christ and the Virgin Diptych consisted of two small oil on oak panel paintings by the Early Netherlandish painter Dirk Bouts (also called Dieric Bouts) completed c. 1470–75. Originally they formed the wings of a hinged devotional diptych. The original autograph diptych is lost, although numerous versions of generally rather poor quality survive including a near identical diptych in the Louvre and a similar diptych in Toronto. Other versions of each panel survive. The best versions of the "Mater Dolorosa" are in the Art Institute of Chicago and in the Weissberger collection at Madrid.
Symmachi–Nicomachi diptych important events, most often the attainment of the consulship. The diptych form, at least originally, served as a pair of covers for wax writing tablets. The work as a whole has been interpreted as a study in nostalgia. Just as the majority of the Roman world had rejected polytheism in favor of Christianity, so too it left behind the techniques of proportion and perspective that characterised the art of its forebears. ---- Symmachi–Nicomachi diptych The Symmachi–Nicomachi diptych is a book-size, Late Antique ivory diptych dating to the late fourth or early fifth century, whose panels depict scenes of ritual pagan