[Purposeful] Convergence: The Modern Triptych

I am a huge fan of triptychs, probably because they hinge upon the idea of three being complete. In case you haven't noticed, I really love threes. Most of the time, on here, if I am giving examples or making points, there are three of them. Three is a glorious number--there is something about it that feels so...right. It's no coincidence that so many historical symbols are threes. The Trinity. The 9 nights of Hanukkah [3x3!]. The three Furies. And on and on and on.

Triptychs, it seems, were very common in the Renaissance era. Many of them depicted Biblical scenes, but still others existed. My two favorite triptychs of "yore" are Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights and Campin's Annunciation Triptych. I have to be honest about Campin's piece: it's one of my favorites because the middle panel shows a very campy Baby Jesus flying through the air toward Mary's stomach. I like it because Campin thought that the most appropriate way to depict the Annunciation involves Jesus flying in through a closed window to save the day.

I am not really sure by Bosch's piece speaks to me so clearly, but I have a feeling that it is because his piece was smack in the middle of a lot of fairly anonymous religious pieces of Renaissance art. His triptych is like a nightmare in three parts--Eden itself looks like some piece of science fiction; Ecclesia is filled with fornicating bodies and some pretty frightening fauna; Hell is, well...Hell. Another striking thing about it is how damned modern it looks. Compare the background of the third panel with photos of the London Blitzkrieg, the destruction of Dresden, or the bombing of Iraq, and you'll see what I mean.

I was looking through some pictures on Flickr today, and I decided I wanted to write about Damien Hirst. I have found Hirst fascinating since first read about him in the New York Times. The piece was about how his sculpture The Physical Impossibility of Death In The Mind Of Someone Living had been bought for someone's personal collection, but was rotting and in need of new preservation, but I just thought it was amazing that this guy had created art simply by floating a once-live shark in formaldehyde. It was a massive undertaking, I'm sure, and the result was, as one can imagine, breathtaking. These were the beautiful days I was falling out of love with Impressionism and into love with any kind of art that was unusual, fucked-up, out of the norm. Damien Hirst had a hold on my brain.

So, tonight I was looking at some of his pieces, trying to figure out what to write about, when Hirst's modern triptych appeared in my Google Image Search window. His spin on the triptych is amazing, perfectly modern, perfectly twisted.

Damien Hirst, The Tranquility of Solitude (for George Dyer), 2006

I was even more intrigued to find out that this is a modern spin on another modern triptych, Francis Bacon's Triptych 1973:

Bacon's triptych is an exploration of the suicide of his lover George Dyer, who overdosed on barbiturates in a hotel room in which the two were staying. His triptych is, in its own right, amazing, as twisted as Bosch's, simultaneously poignant and grotesque.

But even more amazing, I think, is the way Hirst has translated this work into three dimensions, pulling the images out of the panels and making them, ironically, come to life through use of dead animals. It's just about perfect, and makes me love Hirst's work more than I already did...if that's possible.