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 altarpieces 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 polyptychs. 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) which is a modern 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 and Garden. Ecclesiastical It is in this form that the mention of "diptychs" in early Christian literature is found. The term refers to official lists of the living and departed that are commemorated by the local church. The living would be inscribed on one wing of the diptych, and the departed on the other. The inscribing of a bishop's name in the diptychs means that the local church considers itself to be in communion with him, the removal of a bishop's name would indicate breaking communion with him. The names in the diptychs would be read publicly by the deacon during the Divine Liturgy (Eucharist), and by the priest during the Liturgy of Preparation. Diptychs were also used to inscribe the names of the saints. Although the wax tablets themselves are no longer used, the term is still used in the Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholic Churches to describe the contents of the diptychs, with all the same connotations. Diptych sundial A