Portrait diptychs

Among Rogier's portrait panels, those combined with a depiction of the Madonna to form a diptych constitute a group on their own. The subjects of the portraits are always on the right-hand panel of the diptych - which in the heraldic sense is the left-hand and therefore subordinate side. Consequently they are always turning left, toward the Madonna, and have their hands folded in prayer.

These portraits are constructed like the portraits of individuals except that their faces wear gentle and pious expressions as they gaze at the Virgin. None of these diptychs has been preserved as an entire unit, but two can be reconstructed with certainty (Portrait of Laurent Froimont in Brussels with the Madonna at Caen, and Portrait of Jean de Gros in Chicago with the Madonna at Tournai), and one experimentally (Portrait of Philippe de Croy in Antwerp with the Madonna in California).

The type of diptych consisting of half length figures of the Virgin Mary and the donor of the work seems in fact to have been developed by Rogier van der Weyden. Double panels on the same subject had already existed in the 14th century, but they always showed the figures full length. The new formula was based on head and shoulder depictions of Christ with Mary as intercessor, and they too had a long tradition behind them.

Rogier now replaced Mary by the donor of the diptych engaged in prayer, and in turn replaced Christ by his mother as the recipient of the donor's devotions. The result was to create a particular sense of closeness between the donor and the Virgin Mary with her Child, combining the large and ostentatious portrait with the theme of eternal prayer. This pictorial form proved very successful, and continued into the 16th century.