Pinturas National Gallery

Great paintings day
Sainsbury Wing: Paintings from 1250-1500
* The Wilton Diptych: unknown.
The 'Wilton Diptych' was painted as a portable altarpiece for the private devotion of King Richard II, who ruled England from 1377 to 1399. The diptych is thought to have been made in the last five years of Richard's reign, about 1395-9.It is called The Wilton Diptych because it came from WiltonHouse in Wiltshire.

A diptych is a painting, carving or piece of metalwork on two panels, usually hinged like a book. On the inside, Richard II is presented by three saints to the Virgin and Child and a company of eleven angels. Nearest to Richard is his patron saint John the Baptist. Behind are Saint Edward the Confessor and Saint Edmund, earlier English kings who came to be venerated as saints.* The coronation of the Virgin with Adoring Saints: Jacopo di Cione.
This painting is one of the 12 main panels of the altarpiece which shows scenes from the life of Saint Peter. The painting was commissioned for the church of San Pier Maggiore in Florence, probably by the Albizzi family. The accounts of 1370 show that a certain Niccolò, probably Niccolò di Pietro Gerini, designed thealtarpiece. It was probably painted by Jacopo di Cione and assistants. It was completed in 1371. In the centre of the composition are Christ and the Virgin, dressed in white and gold, and seated upon a canopied throne surrounded by angels. The panels to each side are densely crowded with saints; to the left a prominent Saint Peter carries a model of San Pier Maggiore.
* The Battle of San Romano:Paolo Uccello/probably about 1438-40.
This brilliantly structured and colourful painting represents part of the battle of San Romano that was fought between Florence and Siena in 1432. The central figure is Niccolò da Mauruzi da Tolentino on his white charger (soldier’s horse), the leader of the victorious Florentine forces known as 'Knot of Solomon'.

This panel is one of a set of three showingincidents from the same battle. The other two are in the Louvre, Paris, and the Uffizi, Florence. This painting and its two companion panels were commissioned by the Bartolini Salimbeni family in Florence sometime between 1435 and 1460: only the Uffizi panel is signed.
The pictures may originally have had arched tops designed to fit below Gothic vaults. They were made into rectangular panels inthe 15th century, possibly by Uccello himself. Uccello was much preoccupied with one point linear perspective, seen here in the foreshortening of shapes and arrangement of broken lances
* Arnolfini Portrait: Jan Van Eyek
This work is a portrait of Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini and his wife. His wife is not pregnant, as is often thought, but holding up her full-skirted dress in the contemporaryfashion. Arnolfini was a member of a merchant family from Lucca living in Bruges. The couple are shown in a well-appointed interior. 

The ornate Latin signature translates as 'Jan van Eyck was here 1434'. Van Eyck often inscribed his pictures in a witty (clever and funny) way. The mirror reflects two figures in the doorway. One may be the painter himself. Arnolfini raises his right hand,perhaps as a greeting.

Van Eyck was intensely interested in the effects of light: oil paint allowed him to depict it with great subtlety in this picture, notably on the gleaming brass chandelier.
* Venus and Mars: Botticelli/ about 1485.
Mars, God of War, was one of the lovers of Venus, Goddess of Love. Here Mars is asleep and unarmed, while Venus is awake and alert. The meaning of the pictureis that love conquers war, or love conquers all. 

This work was probably a piece of bedroom furniture, perhaps a bedhead or piece of wainscoting. The wasps ('vespe' in Italian) at the top right suggest a link with the Vespucci family, though they may be no more than a symbol of the stings of love. 

Botticelli had painted satyrs on it. The little satyrs have stolen his lance - a joke to show...