Best Triptych

The Descent from the Cross is a monumental triptych by Peter Paul Rubens, completed in the early 17th century for the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp, where it remains. Its central panel shows Christ's pale body being lowered diagonally from the cross by a group of straining figures, while the side...

The Mérode Altarpiece is a small oil-on-panel triptych associated with the workshop of Robert Campin and generally dated to the 1420s or 1430s. Its central panel places the Annunciation in a contemporary Netherlandish domestic interior, flanked by kneeling donors and Saint Joseph working in his shop...

The Portinari Altarpiece is a large triptych painted by Hugo van der Goes for Tommaso Portinari, a Florentine representative of the Medici bank in Bruges. Its central panel depicts the Adoration of the Shepherds, while the wings show members of the Portinari family with their patron saints. Installe...

The Hay Wain is a triptych by Hieronymus Bosch, generally dated to around 1510-1516 and now held by the Museo del Prado in Madrid. Its central panel shows people from every social rank struggling around an enormous wagon of hay, while the wings trace a movement from humanity's fall to punishment in...

Peter Paul Rubens painted The Raising of the Cross in 1610-1611 as a monumental triptych for the Church of St. Walburga in Antwerp; it is now displayed in the Cathedral of Our Lady. Across the three oil-on-panel sections, muscular figures strain diagonally to lift Christ's cross while witnesses and...

The Last Judgment Triptych in Gdańsk is a large oil on panel work painted by Hans Memling around 1467 to 1471 for the Florentine banker Angelo Tani. Its central panel shows Christ judging the dead above the archangel Michael, while the wings divide the saved from the damned. The triptych was seized...

The Descent from the Cross is a monumental triptych painted by Peter Paul Rubens from 1612 to 1614 for the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp, where it remains. The central panel depicts Christ's body being lowered on a white shroud by a tightly coordinated group of figures, creating a strong diagonal...

The Seven Sacraments Altarpiece is an oil on panel triptych painted by Rogier van der Weyden around 1445 to 1450. A monumental Crucifixion dominates the central church interior, while smaller groups enact baptism, confirmation, penance, the Eucharist, ordination, marriage, and anointing of the sick...

The St. John Altarpiece is a triptych completed by Hans Memling in 1479 for St. John's Hospital in Bruges, where it remains in the institution's museum. The central panel presents the Virgin and Child with saints and angels, while distant episodes depict the lives of John the Baptist and John the Ev...

The Elevation of the Cross is a monumental triptych painted by Peter Paul Rubens around 1610 to 1611 and now installed in the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp. Across the central panel, muscular workers strain to raise the cross bearing Christ, creating a steep diagonal that continues the action int...

Jan van Eyck's Dresden Triptych, dated 1437, is a small oil-on-panel work in the Gemaldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden. The central panel shows the Virgin and Child enthroned inside a church, while the wings present the donor with Saint Michael and Saint Catherine. Designed as a portable devotional...

The Columba Altarpiece is an oil on panel triptych painted by Rogier van der Weyden around 1455 for the Church of St. Columba in Cologne. Its central panel depicts the Adoration of the Magi, flanked by the Annunciation and the Presentation of Christ in the Temple. Rogier places the sacred episodes w...

The Bladelin Triptych is an Early Netherlandish altarpiece painted by Rogier van der Weyden around 1452-1455, probably for Pieter Bladelin, a prominent official at the Burgundian court. Its central panel depicts the Nativity with the donor kneeling outside the stable, while the wings show visions of...

The Braque Triptych is a small Early Netherlandish devotional altarpiece painted by Rogier van der Weyden around 1452 and associated with Jehan Braque and his wife, Catherine de Brabant. When opened, it presents Saint John the Baptist, the Virgin, Christ, Saint John the Evangelist, and Mary Magdalen...

The Moreel Triptych is an oil-on-panel altarpiece completed by Hans Memling in 1484 for Willem Moreel, a prominent Bruges official, and his wife Barbara van Vlaenderberch. The central panel presents Saint Christopher with Saints Maurus and Giles, while the wings show the donors and their children wi...

The Annunciation Triptych in the Louvre is an early Netherlandish altarpiece associated with Rogier van der Weyden and his workshop, dating from the 1430s. Its central panel places the Annunciation in a carefully furnished domestic interior, where the angel Gabriel approaches the Virgin as she reads...

Gerard David's Baptism of Christ Altarpiece is an early sixteenth-century triptych painted in oil on wooden panels and now preserved in the Groeningemuseum in Bruges. The central panel shows John the Baptist baptizing Christ in the Jordan, with God the Father and the Holy Spirit completing the Trini...

The Triptych of the Crucifixion in Vienna is an oil-on-panel work associated with Rogier van der Weyden and dated to the fifteenth century. It presents the crucified Christ with the Virgin Mary, Saint John, and other sacred figures arranged across hinged panels for concentrated devotional viewing. N...

The Triptych of Saint Ildefonso is a large Baroque altarpiece painted by Peter Paul Rubens around 1630-1632 for Archduchess Isabella Clara Eugenia. Its central panel depicts the Virgin presenting a chasuble to Saint Ildefonso, while the wings include members of the Habsburg court in devotional roles...

The Donne Triptych is a small devotional altarpiece painted by Hans Memling around 1478 for the Welsh courtier Sir John Donne. Its central panel shows the Virgin and Child with saints, while Donne, his wife Elizabeth, and their daughter kneel as donors; the outer wings depict additional saints. Pain...

Albrecht Dürer's Paumgartner Altarpiece is a triptych commissioned by the Paumgartner family of Nuremberg around 1498-1504 and now in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. The central panel depicts the Nativity with small donor figures, while the wings present Saint George and Saint Eustace as monumental s...

Dieric Bouts's Triptych of the Martyrdom of Saint Erasmus is an oil-on-panel altarpiece painted in the 1460s and preserved in St. Peter's Church in Leuven, Belgium. The central panel depicts the saint's executioners winding his intestines around a windlass, but presents the violence with the control...

The Saint Hippolytus Triptych is a late fifteenth-century Netherlandish altarpiece preserved in St. Salvator's Cathedral in Bruges. Its central panel, attributed to Dieric Bouts and his workshop, depicts the martyrdom of Saint Hippolytus, whose body is pulled apart by horses, while the wings include...

Small triptych by Hans Memling (c. 1470) depicting the Crucifixion, commissioned by Jan Crabbe, abbot of the Dunes Abbey near Bruges; its panels are now dispersed across collections.

The Holy Kinship by Geertgen tot Sint Jans is a late 15th-century Netherlandish panel painting now in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. It depicts an extended sacred family assembled within a church interior, with the Virgin and Child placed among relatives identified through the medieval tradition of S...

The Oberried Altarpiece is a German Renaissance altarpiece painted by Hans Holbein the Younger around 1521 to 1522 for members of the Oberried family in Freiburg. Two surviving wing panels, now in Freiburg Minster, depict the Nativity and the Adoration of the Magi and include donor portraits within...

The Triptych of Jan de Sedano is an Early Netherlandish devotional work painted by Gerard David around the turn of the sixteenth century. Its panels combine sacred imagery with portraits of Jan de Sedano and members of his family, reflecting the practice of placing donors within private devotional a...

A small triptych by Jan Gossaert (Mabuse) painted c. 1510–1515, depicting the Virgin and Child with angels in a jeweled setting, now in the Museo Regionale in Palermo, Sicily.

Dürer's Dresden Altarpiece (c. 1496–97), an early work depicting the Virgin and Child flanked by saints, is now in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden.