Isenheim Altarpiece

Isenheim Altarpiece, panels painted in oil and tempera by German artist Matthias Grünewald on a sculpted altarpiece created by German artist Niclaus of Haguenau between 1512 and 1516. The work was made for the Monastery of St. Anthony hospital chapel at Isenheim in Alsace, then part of the Holy Roman Empire. The infirmary cared for victims of the plague and ergotism (also called St. Anthony’s fire), a disease caused by eating cereals contaminated by ergot, resulting in an intensely painful burning sensation in the limbs.

The Isenheim Altarpiece’s physical structure is complex, comprising two sets of folding wings. By opening and closing these wings, the altarpiece offers three distinct views. When the altarpiece is closed, the middle panel shows Grünewald’s dark and harrowing depiction of Jesus’ crucifixion. The wounded figure of Christ, dead or close to death, is flanked by the pointing St. John the Baptist, the fiercely praying St. Mary Magdalene, and the swooning Virgin Mary, who is held by St. John the Apostle. The left wing portrays St. Sebastian, the patron saint of victims of the plague; the right wing St. Anthony, the patron saint of the hospital’s religious order; and on the lowest panel Jesus Christ being laid in his tomb.

Both of Grünewald’s figures of Christ represent him as having clearly experienced great pain and as being covered in sores like a plague victim. These features were intended to offer solace to the hospital’s patients by suggesting that Christ understood and shared in their afflictions. Grünewald’s powerful work combines Gothic religious intensity with Renaissance technical skill. Christ’s tortured body is rendered with startling naturalism, but rather than offering classical harmony or rational order, the work seeks to overwhelm the viewer emotionally, drawing them into grief, awe, and hope for spiritual redemption.