Wikipedia:Main Page history/2020 October 27

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The Accolade

The Accolade is an oil-on-canvas painting by the British artist Edmund Leighton, created in 1901. The painting depicts an accolade, a ceremony of the Middle Ages in which a knighthood is conferred on a worthy recipient. The man to be knighted kneels in front of the monarch on a knighting stool, and the monarch lays the side of the sword's blade first onto the candidate's right shoulder and then onto the left. In the painting, the ceremony is being performed by a young queen, with the knight bowed before her feet in a position of submission and fealty. An audience is gathered on the queen's left, serving as witnesses to the ceremony. The painting is currently in a private collection.

Painting credit: Edmund Leighton