I did not make it to this National Gallery Show when I was in Washington D.C., but I surely wish I had. These exquisite Dutch-school partnered paintings are called diptychs, and they consist of two small, hinged panels: A portrait of the diptych’s owner was usually painted in a prayful pose on one side facing the saint or religious figure being prayed to on the other.

Popular as forms of religious expression in the Netherlands from the mid-1400s through the 1560s, these paintings are worthy of in-depth study. You can also listen to the online lectures provided. It must be an unforgettable show since these works have not been united as a group for several centuries!