View source for Diptych

==Art==
[[File:Diptych with the Coronation of the Virgin and the Last Judgment MET DP102832.jpg|thumb|''Diptych with the Coronation of the Virgin and the Last Judgment'', [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Diptych_with_the_Coronation_of_the_Virgin_and_the_Last_Judgment_MET_DP102832.jpg Metropolitan Museum of Art]]]
As an art term a diptych is an artwork consisting of two pieces or panels that together create a single art piece. These can be fastened together or presented adjoining each other. In medieval times, panels were often hinged so that they could be closed and the artworks protected.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/d/diptych|title=Diptych – Art Term|last=Tate|website=Tate|language=en-GB|access-date=2020-01-24}}</ref>

In [[Late Antiquity]], ivory notebook diptychs with covers carved in low relief on the outer faces were a significant art-form: the "[[consular diptych]]" was made to celebrate an individual's becoming [[Roman consul]], when they seem to have been made in sets and distributed by the new consul to friends and followers. Others may have been made to celebrate a wedding, or, perhaps like the [[Poet and Muse diptych]] at [[Monza]], simply commissioned for private use. Some of the most important surviving works of the [[Roman Empire#Crisis of the Third Century and the later emperors (235–395)|Late Roman Empire]] are diptychs, of which some dozens survive, preserved in some instances by being reversed and re-used as book covers. The largest surviving Byzantine ivory panel (428&nbsp;mm × 143&nbsp;mm), is a leaf from a diptych in the Justinian court manner of {{circa|525}}–550, which features an archangel.<ref name="ivory-byzantine-british-museum">{{citation | url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=62025&partId=1 | work= British Museum research | format=Ivory relief panel, half of a diptych. | title=Early Byzantine diptych. Representation of: Archangel Michael | id=museum# OA.9999 | orig-year=525-550 (circa) | date=c. 525 | publisher=[[The British Museum]] | access-date=12 August 2016 | mode=cs1}} • {{cite web | url=https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/ivory-panel-showing-an-archangel/MQHc9-8_wq0PxA | work= British Museum collection online | title=Ivory panel showing an archangel | orig-year=525/550 | date=c. 525 | publisher=[[Google Arts & Culture]] | access-date=11 August 2016 }}</ref>

From the [[Middle Ages]] many [[panel painting]]s took the diptych form, as small portable works for personal use; [[Eastern Orthodox]] ones may be called "travelling [[icon]]s". Although the triptych form was more common, there were also ivory diptychs with religious scenes carved in [[relief]], a form found first in [[Byzantine art]] before becoming very popular in the Gothic period in the West, where they were mainly produced in Paris. These suited the mobile lives of medieval elites. The ivories tended to have scenes in several registers (vertical layers) crowded with small figures. The paintings generally had single subjects on a panel, the two matching, though by the 15th century one panel (usually the left one) might contain a portrait head of the owner or commissioner, with the Virgin or another religious subject on the other side. The outsides, which often received considerable wear from travelling, might have simpler decorative designs, including the [[coat of arms]] of the owner.

Large [[altarpiece]]s tended to be made in [[triptych]] form, with two outer panels that could be closed across the main central representation. They are one type of the multi-panel forms of painting known as ''[[polyptych]]s''.

The diptych was a common format in [[Early Netherlandish painting]] and depicted subjects ranging from secular portraiture to religious personages and stories. Often a portrait and a [[Madonna and Child]] had a leaf each. It was especially popular in the 15th and 16th centuries. Painters such as [[Jan van Eyck]], [[Rogier van der Weyden]], [[Hans Memling]] and [[Hugo van der Goes]] used the form. Some modern artists have used the term in the title of works consisting of two paintings never actually connected, but intended to be hung close together as a pair, such as [[Andy Warhol]]'s ''[[Marilyn Diptych]]'' (1962)<ref>[http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=15976 ''Marilyn Diptych'' (1962)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111153443/http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=15976 |date=2012-01-11 }} Tate Collection Online</ref> which is a modern [[popular culture|pop culture]] icon.

"Diptych" is also often used in reference to films or pieces of literature that form a complementary pair. When taken together, they are viewed as illuminating each other and comprising a distinct work of art from the individual parts. An example is the pair of [[Alan Ayckbourn]] plays, [[House & Garden (plays)|House and Garden]].
The street artist [[Banksy]] has regularly used the diptych format for a variety of his studio produced artworks including [[Girl with Balloon]]. The diptych version of the work is made from spray paint on canvas with each panel measuring 30 x 30&nbsp;cm and was released in an edition of 25 in 2005.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Banksy Paintings, Sculptures & Original Art {{!}} Andipa |url=https://andipagallery.com/banksy-original-artworks-for-sale/ |access-date=2023-10-11 |website=Andipa |language=en}}</ref>