Evolution Comes in Threes

Pseudo Granacci, Triumph of Venus, c. 1500, Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, USA

This is purgatory according to Dante Alighieri. A very interesting
critic says Dante's Divine Comedy describes a creative journey.  No  more
struggling in Paradise I hope. Once you get there, you won't feel like
going back.  

One of the things I notice when I watch a movie is that actors try something for three times: the third and last attempt is the right one. This is what usually happens when characters hit a success: the third try is the good one. I am sure you noticed it, too. This happens also in other art productions, as an example in literature. The greatest Italian literary masterpiece, the Divine Comedy, is divided into three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso. The book is inspired by the biblical division of the afterlife: hell. purgatory and paradise. The most interesting critics of the Divine Comedy is that it is the description of a creative path. that means going through three steps that are similar to visiting hell, passing through purgatory and in the end, it's paradise: the celebration of victory. 

But what is a creative path if anything but an evolution journey? This is not all. The reason why I thought of these examples of things coming in threes is that recently I ran into a unique Italian Renaissance altarpiece containing an allegory coming in threes and...expressed by trees! 

The altarpiece with the trees coming in threes is homed in Asolo in the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta. It is a masterpiece by Lorenzo Lotto that he painted in 1506 at the young age of 26.  With this altarpiece the artist concluded his art experience in the area of Treviso. 

The trees coming in threes are from the left to the right: laurel,  cypress
and oak. (Virgin Mary altarpiece by Lorenzo Lotto in the
Cathedral of Asolo, Italy)  

In Lotto's altarpiece, three are the trees describing the evolution from redemption (alloro-laurel), death (cipresso-cypress) and resurrection (quercia-oak). I had never seen such an allegory in a painting before. Have you? Do you have any examples to share about evolution coming in threes? Have you ever experienced such a journey in your life?

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