'PRAYERS AND PORTRAITS'
'PRAYERS AND PORTRAITS'
Monday, November 13, 2006; Page C02
The 15th- and 16th-century diptychs in "Prayers and Portraits: Unfolding Netherlandish Diptych" will remain on exhibition in the West Building of the National Gallery of Art, Fourth Street and Constitution Avenue NW, through Feb. 4. The gallery is open Monday-Friday 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and Sundays 11 a.m.-6 p.m. For information, call 202-737-4215. Admission is free.
After its run here, the show will travel to Antwerp. Its diptychs come from Russia, Australia, Austria, Scotland, Italy, Spain and several other countries; 23 have not been seen in the United States before.
"Prayers and Portraits" is a joint project of the National Gallery, the Royal Museum for Fine Arts, Antwerp, and the art museums of Harvard University. It was 10 years in preparation. Three scholars -- John Oliver Hand, the gallery's curator of northern Renaissance painting; Catherine A. Metzger, its senior conservator of paintings; and Ron Spronk of Harvard's Strauss Center for Conservation -- arranged the exhibition and prepared its publications, which include a pair of thick and scientific volumes. Funding was provided by the Homeland Foundation. The Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities provided an indemnity.
