Polyptyque

Polyptyque can indicate either a whole of panel painted or, with the Middle Ages, an inventory of land goods.

Together of painted panels

A polyptyque is a whole of panels painted or carved, bound between them, often including/understanding shutters being able to fold up themselves on a central part and thus to be transported.

Very the many polyptyques ones were painted during the Middle Ages, to be used as Retable S in the churches. Some are large masterpieces:

the mystical Lamb by the brothers Van Eyck
the Polyptyque of the Last Judgment by Van der Weyden
the retable of Issenheim (Grunewald)
the Garden of the Delights (Bosch)
etc

By analogy, one speaks sometimes about polyptyque to indicate the technique of the screen splity, in the audio-visual productions.

See too

Description of ecclesiastical fields

Polyptyque (syn. Descriptio , Breve ): With the Early middle ages, detailed inventory of the land goods of a great landowner. Divided into chapter ( brevis ), the first polyptyques francs go back at least to VIIe century. In their traditional form, they describe in IXe century the components of each seigniory (country reserve and tenures), enumerate the obligations of the tenants and detail sometimes their name and the composition of their family. About thirty polyptyques Carolingians reached us. They were written mainly in the areas located between the Seine and the Rhine (Saint-Germain-of-Meadows, Saint-Remi of Rheims, Prüm, Saint-Bertin) and in the kingdom of Italy (Santa Giulia de Brescia, Bobbio), to describe the properties of large royal monasteries. Oldest of polyptyques (c.800) however is composed of descriptions drawn from inventories from the properties from évêché of Salzburg, of the abbey of Wissembourg and five courses pertaining to the royal tax department, in the area of Lille. Most famous, because most detailed, is the polyptyque of the abbey of Saint-Germain-of-Meadows or the abbot Irminon which dates among 823 and 828.

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