POLYPTYCH. - A term generally used to denote a complex of more than three painted panels, joined together by an architectural framework.
A diptych, in fact, is a complex of two paintings brought together, whose compositions may or may not complement one another, while a triptych is a complex of three paintings, the lateral ones being called wings or shutters. Instead of the terms tetraptych, pentaptych, etc., polyptych is generally preferred, also because in most cases, between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when polyptychs were most widespread, besides the compositions of greater importance, the complex frameworks contained smaller but equally painted panels, especially in the cresting, the pilasters, and the predella. Characteristic examples may be found in Sienese painting, Umbrian painting, Venetian painting, etc., especially in those regions where the taste for Gothic architecture was more widespread.
In a polyptych, the predella, divided into several compartments, is generally distinguished at the base; upon it rise pilasters ending in pinnacles or spires and framing panels that are almost always arched at the top. Above these there is often a second order of painted panels, smaller than the preceding ones, themselves surmounted by small panels that are almost always multifoil. Typical are the polyptych by Nicola Alunno in the Pinacoteca of Gualdo Tadino, and those with various figured elements in polychrome sculpture by the masters of the Murano school. Emilio Lavagnino