Каждый раз он становился на колени прежде, чем оказаться среди вневременной компании Богородица и Младенца с ангелами.
The artist, who was probably one of the king's painters, has lavished more care on the delineation of the personal emblems and insignia of the king than on his actual personality.
There was no need for the latter, since this donor image was meant for the eyes of the donor himself.
The monarch wears around his neck the white hart badge which Richard adopted in 1390 as his personal insignia.
It reappears on the reverse of the left panel.
Both it and the French insignia of broom-cods (seed-pods) are woven into the king's iridescent gold mantle.
The white hart badge is also worn by each of the eleven angels, who thus become royal retainers.
One of them holds the banner of St George.
The event commemorated here has been conjectured as Richard's coronation in 1377, his seeking divine sanction for a crusade in the mid-1390s, or his meeting with the French king in 1396.
But need it refer to a specific historical moment?
Surely it is an outstanding example of a private image, a portable diptych that would follow the king on his travels.
Every time he knelt before it he would be transported among the timeless company of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the angels.