triptych
/ˈtrɪptɪk
/noun
1A picture or relief carving on three panels, typically hinged together vertically and used as an altarpiece: a triptych depicting the Crucifixion...
- The central panel of this intact triptych altarpiece depicts the Mystic Marriage of St Catherine, together with other saints, flanked by donors.
- This willful perversion of the prevailing practices of late medieval spiritual devotions is reinforced by Bosch's use of the very form traditionally devoted to altarpieces: the triptych.
- In the first version of the centre panel of the triptych, Bacon incorporated an unsettling, confrontational figure that peered back imperiously at the viewer through schematic binoculars.
1.1A set of three associated artistic, literary, or musical works intended to be appreciated together: a triptych on the theme of the holocaust his triptych of one-act operas is unfairly neglected...
- The Third Symphony from 1950 is a musical triptych on the Life of Christ.
- Maazel has previously written a pleasant violin concerto and an orchestral triptych.
- By no means am I insisting that these three paintings literally constitute a triptych, religious or otherwise.
Origin
Mid 18th century (denoting a set of three writing tablets hinged or tied together): from tri- 'three', on the pattern of diptych.