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| Anonymous Artist (French or English) The Wilton Diptych Virgin and Child with Angelic Retinue ca. 1395-99 tempera on panel (right-hand panel) National Gallery, London |
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| Anonymous Artist (French or English) The Wilton Diptych Angelic Retinue ca. 1395-99 tempera on panel (right-hand panel) National Gallery, London |
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| Anonymous Artist (French or English) The Wilton Diptych Angelic Retinue ca. 1395-99 tempera on panel (right-hand panel) National Gallery, London |
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| Anonymous Artist (French or English) The Wilton Diptych King Richard II kneeling before the Virgin ca. 1395-99 tempera on panel (left-hand panel) National Gallery, London |
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| Anonymous Artist (French or English) The Wilton Diptych King Richard II sponsored by St John the Baptist ca. 1395-99 tempera on panel (left-hand panel) National Gallery, London |
"The Wilton Diptych in the National Gallery takes its name from Wilton House, near Salisbury, Wiltshire, where it was housed between 1705 and 1929. The name of the artist and the place where it was made are unknown . . . but it is probable that the diptych was made on behalf of Richard II himself and that it was painted in England or northern France around the time of Richard's second marriage in 1396. Surviving panel paintings from northern Europe dating from the late fourteenth century are very rare. The diptych consists of two panels of Baltic oak. It is painted on a prepared gold ground in egg tempera enhanced by translucent glazes, now partially lost."
– from notes at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London
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| Petrus Christus The Lamentation ca. 1455-60 oil on panel Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels |
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| Petrus Christus The Lamentation (detail) ca. 1455-60 oil on panel Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels |
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| Petrus Christus The Lamentation (detail) ca. 1455-60 oil on panel Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels |
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| Petrus Christus The Lamentation (detail) ca. 1455-60 oil on panel Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels |
"On July 6, 1444, Petrus Christus went to the burghers' lodge in Bruges to fulfill the formalities needed to acquire citizenship in this Flemish center of international commerce. A clerk noted in the registers that "Pieter Christus, son of Pieter, born in Baerle, purchased his citizenship . . . in order to become a painter." The protectionist regulations of the local painters' guild were very strict: in order to be allowed to practice his profession in Bruges, Christus had to become a member of this organization, for which citizenship was required. It is not known how old Christus was when he settled in Bruges; nor is it known where he was trained or whether he spent all of his formative years in his hometown in the duchy of Brabant. Within a short time, Christus secured several important commissions and rose to prominence as Bruges' leading painter of the mid-fifteenth century, after the death of Jan van Eyck in 1441, and before Hans Memling arrived, around 1465. . . . Bruges was a favorite residence of the Burgundian dukes, who often made triumphal entrances into the city, accompanied by distinguished guests. Along with the regular presence of the ducal court, wealthy local businessmen and foreign merchants and bankers comprised a potential clientele that drew artists such as Christus to the city. Mediterranean nations played an especially prominent role in Bruges' commerce; significantly, nearly half of Christus's small oeuvre was commissioned by Italians, has an Italian or Spanish provenance, or was early on known to southern artists such as Antonello da Messina."
– from biographical notes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
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| Jean Fouquet The Melun Diptych Virgin and Child enthroned with Cherubim and Seraphim ca. 1452-58 oil on panel (right-hand panel) Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp |
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| Jean Fouquet The Melun Diptych Virgin and Child enthroned with Cherubim and Seraphim (detail) ca. 1452-58 oil on panel (right-hand panel) Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp |
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| Jean Fouquet The Melun Diptych Étienne Chevalier commended to the Virgin by St Stephen ca. 1452-58 oil on panel (left-hand panel) Gemäldegalerie, Berlin |
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| Jean Fouquet The Melun Diptych Portrait of Étienne Chevalier ca. 1452-58 oil on panel (left-hand panel) Gemäldegalerie, Berlin |
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| Jean Fouquet The Melun Diptych St Stephen (with head-wound from his martyrdom) ca. 1452-58 oil on panel (left-hand panel) Gemäldegalerie, Berlin |
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| Jean Fouquet The Melun Diptych Emblem of St Stephen's Martyrdom by Stoning ca. 1452-58 oil on panel (left-hand panel) Gemäldegalerie, Berlin |
"Jean Fouquet's diptych from the Collegiate Church of Notre-Dame in Melun is one of the masterworks of French painting and of fifteenth-century art in general. The former left panel, featuring a portrait of the donor Étienne Chevalier and a representation of Saint Stephen, came into the Gemäldegalerie's collection in 1896. The right panel, depicting the Madonna, has belonged to the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp since the early nineteenth century."
– from curator's notes at the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
"On a visit to Rome around 1445, Jean Fouquet caused a great sensation when he painted a portrait of Pope Eugenius IV on canvas rather than the more common wood support. The momentous result of this sojourn, where he admired the work of the most innovative Italian artists of the 1400s, was that Fouquet introduced concepts and techniques of Italian Renaissance art into French painting. His subsequent work in panel painting, illuminated manuscripts, and portraiture earned him a reputation as the most important French painter of the 1400s. Born in Tours, then the seat of the French monarchy, Fouquet worked for King Charles VII and his court. At the time of Charles's death, the court commissioned him to make a colored death mask for the king's public funeral, an indication of Fouquet's prominence. Under Charles's successor, King Louis XI, Fouquet was appointed peintre du roy. In this exalted position, he supervised a large workshop that produced paintings and manuscripts."
– from curator's notes at the Getty Museum