Definition of "triptych"

triptych

/ˈtɹɪptɪk/

noun
plural triptychs
1. (art) A picture or series of pictures painted on three tablets connected by hinges.
  Quotations
  I never thought breastfeeding would be hard. When I thought about it at all, my mind conjured beatific scenes suffused with a sort of religious glow. […] These days I envisage more of a triptych: the infant Jesus spluttering at the breast, face purple with hangry fury; the infant Jesus possetting milk down Mary’s front; the infant Jesus and the nappy explosion.
  2022 May 9, Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett, “Turns out breastfeeding really does hurt – why does no one tell you?”, in The New York Times‎
2. (by extension) A group of three people or works, especially when considered representative of a particular field or theme.
  Quotations
  Thus, with the passing years, Papa Wemba, a hardworking and introverted man, has come to embody “African pop,” forming a triptych with Youssou N’Dour and Salif Keita.
  2002, Frank Tenaille, translated by Steven Toussaint and Hope Sandrine, Music Is the Weapon of the Future: Fifty Years of African Popular Music, Chicago, IL: Lawrence Hill Books, page 183
  Woodson, the recipient of four Newbery Honor awards, has written her first adult novel in 20 years, returning to the Brooklyn setting of “Autobiography of a Family Photo” (1995) and her recent award-winning memoir, “Brown Girl Dreaming.” These works form a triptych of bildungsromans taking place in the author’s hometown and tracking her generation’s coming to adulthood.
  2016 August 18, Tayari Jones, “Jacqueline Woodson’s Adult Novel Captures 1970s Brooklyn”, in The New York Times‎
  The show was the first in a triptych of excellent Australian dramas produced by John Edwards that tapped into the sensibility of a generation. It was followed by the thirtysomething drama, Love My Way, and Tangle, which focused on fortysomethings.
  2020 January 30, Brigid Delaney, “The Secret Life of Us broke the mould with its honest depiction of twentysomething culture”, in The Guardian‎
  1. (film) A film or video sequence intended to be shown on a triple screen with the use of linked projectors.
    Quotations
    The centerpiece of the show is a poised, luminous, tender, and diabolically clever video installation, “Le Triptyque de Noirmoutier” (The Noirmoutier Triptych), which Varda shot on 35-mm. film […]. The man gets himself a bottle of beer; the older woman heads with dishes from the sink toward the cupboard—and crosses the dividing line of the triptych exactly like crossing a threshold.
    2017 March 27, Richard Brody, “Agnès Varda’s Art of Being There”, in The New Yorker‎
  2. (philately) A set of three se-tenant postage stamps that form a composite picture.
3. (figurative) Any set of three closely connected ideas or objects.
  Quotations
  Witchcraft, heresy, and counterfeiting formed a triptych in popular imagination and in the law.
  1994, John L. Brooke, The Refiner’s Fire: The Making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644–1844, page 115
  The interest here is […] to construct for heuristic purposes a triptych of different “roads to salvation” as reflected in domains of preaching of contemporary Egypt.
  1994, Patrick D. Gaffney, The Prophet’s Pulpit: Islamic Preaching in Contemporary Egypt, page 36
  There was nothing quite like Hanalei Bay, that great horseshoe of protected water fed by the thick artery of the Hanalei River and framed by a triptych of mountains.
  2017, Toby Neal, Wired Dawn‎