The religious reformations of the ⅩⅥ and ⅩⅦ centuries led to the wholesale destruction of virtually all Christian paintings and sculpture in England, Wales, and Scotland. Fragments remain and one or two pieces. IT is all the more remarkable then that one of the pieces remaining is the exceptional painting known as the Wilton Diptych. Probably commissioned for King Richard Ⅱ or perhaps for his Queen (and now in the National Gallery, London) it shows on one panel Our Lady and the Christ Child surrounded by the glory of angels and on the other, King Richard kneeling in homage accompanied … Continue reading England: our Lady’s dowry – a lesson from Richard Ⅱ