The White Hart is a large panel painting in egg tempera on board depicting the emblem of Richard II from the Wilton Diptych and created for Chivalry, part two of Into the Wyld at the Williamson Art Gallery.

The White Hart (2024) Williamson Art Gallery


Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was possibly both written and performed for Richard II. My painting seeks to connect his royal emblem of the white hart with the deer hunted by Lord Bertilak in the poem. The work takes inspiration both in form and technique with the famous Wilton Diptych in the National Gallery, a fourteenth century masterpiece commissioned for the coronation of Richard II.

In my version the ‘high-antlered hart’ is depicted in two types of gold, dancing in fields of rosemary in the joy of having escaped the hunt.

The White Hart shows a panel painting in egg tempera by John Elcock 2024
The White Hart

The White Hart
Egg tempera and gold leaf on gesso panel (2024)
1.2×1.6m

Image credits: Benjamin Nuttall