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The Wilton Diptych and the Absolutism of Richard II

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The Wilton Diptych and the Absolutism of Richard II Quidditas Volume 8 Article 4 1987 The Wilton Diptych and the Absolutism of Richard II Sumner Ferris California University of Pennsylvania Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/rmmra Part of the Comparative Literature Commons, History Commons, Philosophy Commons, and the Renaissance Studies Commons Recommended Citation Ferris, Sumner (1987) "The Wilton Diptych and the Absolutism of Richard II," Quidditas: Vol. 8 , Article 4. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/rmmra/vol8/iss1/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Quidditas by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. JRMMRA 8 (1987) The Wilton Diptych and the Ab oluti m of Ri chard II* by umner Ferris Cali fornia n iversiLy f Pennsylvania The Wi lton DipLy h (i n The Natio nal Call ery, London) m no"', after some years of hesitation on the matter, be considered to be very probably the work of an I::nglish artist. ' Consequemly, we may take the painting to be not sim ply a ma tcrpiece of the International tyle but a specifically English masterpiece of th e age of Ri chard II, the king whom it chi efl y honors and depicts, and we may expect LO find in it a pecifically English meaning. BUL, despite its acknowledged artistic merit, the Wil ton Diptych is ti ll imperfectly understood. There are three fundamental matters to be resolved about the painting: its date, its meaning. and its purpo e. The Wilton Diptych wa acquired for the nation in 1929; two year later, Maude V. Clarke published the first major study of the Diptych.' For the next three decades there en ued a lively and fruitful controversy about the Diptych until the publicati on, in 1961, of what till remains the most comprehensive study, J. H. Harvey's "The Wi lton Diptych: A Re-examination."' Although nothing of major imponan e abo ut th e Wi lto n Diptyc h ha been published since then,' the rea on may be that Harvey in fact provided what is probably the last piece of evidence necessary for under ·tanding the basi meaning of the Dipty h. Interpretati on of the painting could perhap proceed no fa rther until what was valuable in earlier studies had been recogniied and rcas em bled i nLO a coherent and satisfy ing pattern. To turn to the Wi lton Diptych itself: in the left panel of the obverse (fig. I), in a ston ,111d wooded etting, kneels the )'OL111 gi h-looking Ri chard 11 (b. 1367; r. 1377-1399; d. 1400) wearing a crown, hi hand unfo lding a if from prayer. On his !oak he wears a badge, o nsi Ling of a re umbcnt, hite h n engorged with a golden crown, and around his neck is a coll r of broom• cods, planlae geni.stae. (Harvey argues that this is a canting reference w the 34 Wilton Diptych Figure I. Wilton Diptych, left panel (obverse) Reproduced by the cou rt")' of the Trustets, TIU! atio11al Galkry, umdo11. umner Ferris 35 Figure 2. Wilton Diptych, right panel (obver e) R,productd by th, courtesy of tli, Tn,ste,s, The atio110/ Gall,ry. Lo11do11. 36 Wilton Diptych House of Plantagenet, against the generally accepted opinion that th royal house did noL adopt the surname until the fifteenth century.)' The king' robe is pauerned with the while hart within a circle of broom, and, like the pallium used al his coronation, with the figures of displayed eagle .• Behind Ri chard and standing in a row are three aims, each pointing with hi right hand to Ri chard, and each bearing in the left arm the symbol of hi aint• hood: St. Edmund, Lhe ninth·century king of Ea LAng li a, with the arrow that was the instrument of his martyrdom by the Danes; St. Edward the Confes or, with the ring tha t was the ubject of a famou legend about him; and t.John the Bapt.ist, gaunt and emaciated, with the Agnus Oei. his right hand touching Richard. At Lhe right edge of the panel, behind the figures but unobscured by them, i a large rock whose ledges fo rm a Oight of fo ur steps. In the right panel (fig. 2), in a floral cuing, the Bies eel Virgin is holding the Christ Child; they are surrounded by eleven angels. The Infa nt's halo i incised with the nail a nd the crown of thorns of the Passion, detail too faint to be seen in most reproductions of the Diptych. T he angel , like Ri chard in the othe r panel, wear the collar o f broom and the badge of the white hart. At the left, one of the a ngels i holding a banner that consists ofa red cro son a white field: this is the familiar banner of t. George. The angel holding the banner is pointing with a ingle finger towards Richard, and most of the other angels are looking or pointing al him, a are also Mary and J esus. The auiwde of the Infant's ha nd emphasize · the banner' importan e and uggests that he may have just given it to the a ngel to pre• sent to Ri chard and also that he i about to bless Lh e king. Ri chard' unfolding hands in LUrn sugge t that he is about LO ta ke the banner and also that he is about to take and kis the Infa nt's foot. On one panel of the rever e of the Diptych (fig. 3) is a large image of the white hart, lying on grass amid fl ower and bracken. On the other is Ri chard's coat of arms, the arms of England quartered with tho e attributed Lo Edward the Confessor. The e panels do not them elves ca ·t any light on the complex me,aning of the panels on the obverse; but, as they displa Ri chard' badge and arms, they demon trale that the Diptych belonged Lo the king him elf. (IL may have been an altarpiece for his private hapel.) More significantly, these panels help to answer one of the principal questions abouL Lhe Diptych; namely, when was it painted? The dates that have been proposed for the Wilton Diptych range from 1377, hortly after Ri hard' coronati o n, to the early 1400 ·, shortly after hi death.' But laud ' Clarke howed that iL was on! in the last five or ix years of Ri chard's reign, from 1394 to 1399, that Ri chard employed and displayed much f the same heraldry as i found in the \,\ ilton Dipl ch; Harve ha confirmed Clarke's conclusions with man examples of the same imagery in th sarn e period.• Among the evidence they cite are the Confe sor's arms, Sumner Ferris 37 which Ri chard adopted in the mid-1390s; the white hart, a large image of which may still be een in the gallery of Westmin ter Abbey, which Ri chard "'a rebuilding in the 1390s; the angels, who, along with other white harts, adorn Westminster Hall , al o being rebuilt then; and the imperi al eagles on L Edmund's cloak, whi ch probabl allude LO Ri chard' ambiti n LO become Emperor. Proponent of an earli er date for the Dipt ch sometime argue that Richard may have used the e heraldic images privately before he did o publicly, but their coll o ati on and prominent use in the Diptych suggest strongly that the pi cture was painted when they were all being used in the later 1390s LO proclaim Ric hard's regal dignity. Anne of Bohemia, Ri hard' beloved fir t wife, died in 1394. A scvemeenth- ce ntur engraving of a lost fourteenth-century polyptych previously in Rome hows Ri hard and Anne together pre enting the kingdom of England to the Blessed Virgin as t.h e Dos Mariae, Our Lady' Dowry.• It is frequently stated that t.h e them and imagery of this painting are o similar to those of the Wilton Diptych that Queen Anne would likewi e have appeared in th e Diptych had ·he been alive when it wa pai nted. But this a·sumption will not hold if, as wi ll be argued below, the Diptych can be hown to refer LO a period in Ri chard' life before he and Anne were married. On the other hand, 1he youthful appearance of Ri chard in the Diptych ha · led ome scholars, most notably elby Wh ittingham, LO argue that it could not have been painted so late in hi s reign, at a time when, as the effigy on his tomb erected in the mid-1390 (fig. 4) shm s, he certainly wore a beard. 10 Bui even if the Dipt ch were pai nted then, it may refer Lo evems earlier in Richard's life, and if it does, we should ex pect the Diptych to portray him as rather ounger than he was when it was executed, but purposely more mature than he actually was when the events occurred. larke's interpr tati on of the paiming led her LO favor a date between 1397 and 1399, Hai cy' to between the summer of 1394 and the autumn of 1395, and the one 10 be offered below LO possibly a late a 139 or 1399; but assi nmem to sometime within the last li ve or six ear of Richard' reign seem cenai n.
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