Triptych

[2] Diptych is borrowed from the Latin diptycha, which itself is derived from the Late Greek δίπτυχα (díptycha) 'pair of writing tablets'.

[3] The triptych form appears in early Christian art, and was a popular standard format for altar paintings from the Middle Ages onwards.

The triptych form's transportability was exploited during World War Two when a private citizens' committee in the United States commissioned painters and sculptors to create portable three-panel hinged altarpieces for use by Christian and Jewish U.S. troops for religious services.

[8] Although strongly identified as a religious altarpiece form, triptychs outside that context have been created, some of the best-known examples being works by Max Beckmann and Francis Bacon.

When Bacon's 1969 triptych, Three Studies of Lucian Freud, was sold in 2013 for $142.4 million,[9] it was the highest price ever paid for an artwork at auction at that time.

[10] That record was broken in May 2015 by $179.4 million for Pablo Picasso's 1955 painting Les Femmes d’Alger.