Diptych

A diptych is an artwork consisting of two separate panels, pictures or images that together form a single whole, often joined by hinges so that they can be folded like a book. The word derives from the Greek diptychon, meaning "folded in two." In ancient Rome, diptychs were two joined wax tablets used for writing; in the early Christian and medieval periods, diptychs of carved ivory or wood were made into portable relics and altarpieces. In Western European art of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the diptych became a popular form of religious painting: one panel often depicted the Madonna and Child, while the other showed a portrait of the patron-donor in a praying pose. The folding structure protected the images and allowed the diptych to be used as a personal travelling altar. A classic example is the Melun Diptych by Jean Fouquet. The format did not disappear in modern art: twentieth- and twenty-first-century artists, including Francis Bacon with his treatment of the triptych and diptych and Andy Warhol in his Marilyn Diptych, used the paired juxtaposition of two images to create a dialogue of meaning, contrast or narrative sequence.