Polyptych
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A polyptych (from the Greek polu- "many" + ptychē "fold") generally refers to a painting (usually panel painting) which is divided into four or more sections, or panels. (The term diptych is used to describe a two-part painting and the term triptych describes a three-part painting. The terms tetraptych (4 parts), pentaptych (5), hexaptych (6), heptaptych (7), and octaptych (8) are also sometimes used.)
Polyptych may also be used to refer collectively to all multi-panel paintings. In most works there is a larger central panel called the "main panel", and the other panels are called "side-panels", and also "wings". Sometimes, as at Ghent or Isenheim, the hinged panels can be arranged in different ways to show different "views" or "openings."
Polyptychs were most common with early Renaissance painters, and the majority of polyptychs were designed to be altarpieces in churches and cathedrals. The form was also quite popular among ukiyo-e printmakers of Edo period Japan.
Examples of polyptychs include:
- The Ghent Altarpiece is probably the most famous polyptych
- The Isenheim Altarpiece, now at Colmar, by Matthias Grünewald
- Polyptych of the Misericordia (1445–1462) by Piero della Francesca
- The Last Judgment Polyptych (c. 1450) by Rogier van der Weyden
- Saint Augustine Polyptych (1470) by Perugino
- The Demidoff Altarpiece (1476), by Carlo Crivelli, demonstrates the painter's preferred style of altarpiece
- St. Dominic Polyptych (1506–08) by Lorenzo Lotto
In comic books and comic strips a polyptych is a strip, or even an entire comic page, in which the background forms a continuous image even though it may be divided into separate panels; a good example is The Perishers, which often uses polyptychs divided into three panels.
