Prayers and Portraits

"The diptych format - comprising two panels hinged together so that they can be opened and closed like a book - was prevalent in Netherlandish art and depicted subjects ranging from secular portraiture to religious personages and stories. This illustrated book, the first ever devoted to the topic, examines approximately forty pairs of Netherlandish paintings from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Featuring magnificent works by Jan van Eyck, Hugo van der Goes, Hans Memling, and Rogier van der Weyden, among others, the book also covers a wide range of themes, including painting techniques, workshop practice, and the art market in the Netherlands of the time." "With discussions on each painting, Prayers and Portraits reunites a number of diptychs that have long been separated. Texts consider the works in relation to contemporary writings and religious practices in northern Europe as well as developments in art and history. They offer invaluable insights into the social status and aspirations of the sitters. They also incorporate new information based on extensive examinations, primary research, and a vast archive of original technical images. Many of these supporting images are reproduced here, including x-radiographs, infrared reflectogram assemblies, digital photographs, and cross sections of paint layers. A detailed appendix at the back of the book provides a complete record of the documentation and analysis of the paintings examined for this project." "This publication gives readers an opportunity to study these beautiful and intriguing works of art and enhances understanding and appreciation for the diptych format in the context of fifteenth-and sixteenth-century Netherlandish culture."--Jacket.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.