Triptych Art History Definition
What is a triptych?
A triptych is a work of art (normally a board painting) that is separated into three areas or three cut boards that are aligned together and can be collapsed to close or opened to show the work.
Triptych sometimes referred to as polyptych: the centerboard is usually the biggest and it's flanked by two other works. Nevertheless, there are triptychs of equivalent board sizes.
The triptych structure emerged from early Christian art and was the standard composition for paintings from the Middle Ages onwards. Triptych art ranges in style from the eastern Byzantine to the Celtic houses of worship in the west. During the Byzantine time frame, triptychs were regularly utilized for private reverential use, along with different relics, for symbolic display.
In the Renaissance, painters like Hans Memling and Hieronymus Bosch utilized the triptych structure in their art. Altarpieces, houses of worship, and church buildings frequently incorporated triptych works. The Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp, Belgium, contains two Triptychs by Rubens and Notre Dame de Paris.
What is a triptych in art?
Usually a panel of three board paintings that are intended to be shown together. Artists utilize the triptych to depict three works of art that are hung together as one piece.
Why are triptychs used?
Triptych art is an architectural structure of work that had a theme component inside buildings and was used to decorate the spaces. A triptych is from the Greek descriptive word τρίπτυχον meaning "three-overlap".
When did the triptych resurface?
In 1976 when a huge triptych painting,Three Studies of Lucian Freud, by the British artist Francis Bacon was exhibited. It's the second most costly Bacon painting and It was sold in November 2013 for $142.4 million.
What is a triptych poem?
A lyric comprising of three ballads of equivalent length next to each other, similar to the boards of a triptych painting.
Famous Triptych Artists
- Robert Campin
- Jan van Eyck
- Hans Memling
- Hugo van der Goes
- Robert Campin
- Hieronymus Bosch
- Grifo di Tancredi
- Francis Bacon
- Master of Frankfurt
- Hubert van Eyck
- Giotto di Bondone
- Frederick McCubbin
Triptych Artwork
The Garden of Earthly Delights - Triptych by Hieronymus Bosch
The Garden of Earthly Delights, is a complex work of art, Bosch endeavored to portray the entirety of the human experience from the beginning civilization of life, to the great beyond. The first panel on the left is intended to represent the start of human paradise, and the middle and right panel, showcase how the human existence developed throughout the ages.
Three Studies of Lucian Freud - Triptych by Francis Bacon
Three Studies of Lucian Freud, depict artist Lucian Freud. Francis Bacon's was a friend of Freud, at the same time they where art rivals, both of them painted portraits of each other. The painting was sold in November 2013 for $142.4 million.
Michael Peppiatt, art historian, writes:
"Trapped here in a series of Baconian cages, a contorted Freud hovers from panel to panel like a coiled spring about to shoot out of the flat, airless picture plane."
Ghent Altarpiece - Painting by Hubert van Eyck and Jan van Eyck
The Ghent Altarpiece (or the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, Dutch: Het Lam Gods) is a complex fifteenth-century polyptych altarpiece in St Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent, Belgium. It was started in the mid-1420s and was finished around 1432.
The painting is attributed to the early Netherlandish painters and brothers Hubert van Eyck and Jan van Eyck. Although the altarpiece isn't exactly a triptych, it's viewed as a masterpiece of European art and one of the world's greatest treasures.
Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion - Triptych by Francis Bacon
Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion is a very unique triptych piece. Delineating a group of unclear anthropomorphic creatures squirming in anguish.
Bacon established his reputation as one of England's foremost figurative painters and a merciless writer who depicted his ideals of the human condition. Bacon's oeuvre, includes, rough faceless portraits, mangled bodies taking after an animal form, images of screaming figures, carcasses, and idiosyncratic adaptations of the Crucifixion.
Stefaneschi Triptych - Triptych by Giotto di Bondone
Stefaneschi Triptych is a Gothic tempra board painting by Giotto di Bondone. It was painted roughly around 1320. It currently resides at the Pinacoteca Vaticana in Italy.
Cardinal Giacomo Stefaneschi authorized Bondone to make a magnificent altarpiece for the congregation of St. Dwindle's in Rome. The middle board portrays St. Subside in the front and Christ in the background. Stefaneschi, himself is delineated on the other two boards, and we see him stooping at the foot of both Peter and Christ.
Portinari Altarpiece - Triptych by Hugo van der Goes
The Portinari Triptych was commissioned by Tommaso Portinari, who was also Medici's (artist) agent in Bruges, and who later turned into a significant financier for Hugo van der Goes.
The left-wing demonstrates Tommaso and his two children, Antonio and Pigello, and their defenders, St Thomas and St Anthony. The right side showcases Tommaso's wife: Maria Baroncelli, with her eldest daugher Margherita, joined by Mary Magdalen and St Margaret. In the middle we see the adoration of Christ surrounded by angles.
Mérode Altarpiece - Triptych by Robert Campin
The Pioneer by Frederick McCubbin
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