What is it?
polyptych A picture or relief, usually an altarpiece, which is made up of two
or more separate panels. Two panels form a diptych, three a triptych, five a
pentaptych: more than three are usually called simply a polyptych. A typical
Italian 14th/15th-century polyptych consists of a large central panel of the
Madonna, with perhaps two Saints on either side and
an Annunciation
on top.
The predella would then consist of narrative scenes
from the Lives of Saints 1
and 2, with a scene from the Life of Christ - perhaps the Adoration of the Magi
- in the middle and then scenes from the Lives of Saints 3 and 4.
Source: The Penguin Dictionary of Art and Artists (Penguin Reference Books)
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