A diptych is a work of art made of two panels, painted or carved, and conceived as a pair. Most often a hinge joins them, so the whole thing opens and closes like a book.
One of the best known is the Wilton Diptych, painted for King Richard II of England between about 1395 and 1399 and kept today at London's National Gallery.
Diptych is a Greek word, diptychos, meaning "folded in two." Before it named a picture, it named an everyday object, a writing tablet of two hinged leaves with wax spread on the inside to write on.
Painters kept that structure: two flat panels and a hinge between them. Opened, they show what is inside. Closed, they protect it.
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Open, the Wilton Diptych shows one scene spread over two panels. On the left, Richard II kneels, presented by three saints. Facing him, the Virgin Mary stands among angels with the infant Christ, and the child leans out toward the king. The hinge runs exactly between them.
Cover the right half, and the king prays toward a bare strip of frame. Cover the left, and the child reaches for no one. A diptych works that way: two panels made as a pair that only make full sense side by side.
Folded, the two painted sides lie against each other and only the plain outside shows. Richard II had the work made for his own private use, a picture he could open for prayer and close again.
From wax tablets to ivory gifts
To understand why a king's picture folds like a book, it helps to go back to the object it copies…
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