From the artist's life
The Isenheim Altarpiece was made for a hospital treating skin disease; Christ's plague-ridden, sore-covered body was meant to comfort the dying patients.
Source: Wikipedia / WikimediaRenaissance
Matthias Grünewald
Matthias Grünewald (c. 1470–1528) was a German Renaissance master who rejected Italian idealism for raw, visionary intensity. His Isenheim Altarpiece is one of the most harrowing images of suffering in Western art.
Forgotten for centuries, Grünewald was rediscovered by the Expressionists, who saw a kindred spirit in his anguished vision.
- Painted the Isenheim Altarpiece, a masterpiece of raw, visionary anguish.
- Rejected Renaissance idealism for emotional, almost hallucinatory intensity.
- Rediscovered and revered by 20th-century Expressionists.
Key works
Where to start
Complete list of key works
Works with a dedicated ArtAtlas page are highlighted in gold.
- Isenheim AltarpieceOn ArtAtlas
- Heller AltarpieceListed for reference
- Stuppach MadonnaListed for reference
- Meeting of St Erasm and St MauriceListed for reference
- The Mocking of ChristListed for reference
- Tauberbischofsheim altarpieceListed for reference
- Temptation of Saint AnthonyListed for reference
- The CrucifixionListed for reference
- Founding of Santa Maria Maggiore in RomeListed for reference
- Trias RomanaListed for reference
- ResurrectionListed for reference
1512
Isenheim Altarpiece
The Isenheim Altarpiece is an altarpiece sculpted and painted by, respectively, the Germans Nikolaus Hagenauer and Matthias Grünewald in 1512–1516. It is on display at the Unterlinden Museum at Colmar, Alsace, in France.