Pendant

A pendant, or companion picture, is one of two works conceived to be displayed together as a matching pair. The term "pendant" (from the French for "hanging, corresponding") denotes two paintings of the same size and format, with a coordinated composition and usually a shared theme, intended to hang side by side — often symmetrically on either side of a door, fireplace or central image. Together they form a balanced ensemble in which each half complements and "answers" the other. The practice of making companion pictures was especially widespread in European art of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. A classic example is the pendant portraits of a married couple, in which husband and wife are depicted separately but turned towards each other, forming a single pair. Pendants could also be landscapes — morning and evening, for instance — or allegorical subjects complementing one another in meaning. Symmetrical hanging was an important part of the decorative scheme of palace and country-house interiors. Recognising works as pendants matters for art history and museum practice, since separating a historically linked pair destroys the dialogue between the images that the artist intended.