Illustration
The Isenheim Altarpiece is an altarpiece sculpted and painted by, respectively, the Germans Nikolaus of Haguenau and Matthias Grünewald in 1512–1516 CE. It is on display at the Unterlinden Museum at Colmar, Alsace, in France. It is Grünewald's largest work, and is regarded as his masterpiece. It was painted for the Monastery of St. Anthony in Isenheim near Colmar, which specialized in hospital work. The Antonine monks of the monastery were noted for their care of plague sufferers as well as their treatment of skin diseases, such as ergotism. The image of the crucified Christ is pitted with plague-type sores, showing patients that Jesus understood and shared their afflictions. The veracity of the work's depictions of medical conditions was unusual in the history of European art.
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Original image by Vincent Desjardins. Uploaded by John Horgan, published on 08 July 2020. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution. This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation. When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.
Related Images
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Closed View of the Ghent Altarpiece
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Cite This Work
APA Style
Desjardins, V. (2020, July 08). Isenheim Altarpiece. World History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.worldhistory.org/image/12397/isenheim-altarpiece/
Chicago Style
Desjardins, Vincent. "Isenheim Altarpiece." World History Encyclopedia. Last modified July 08, 2020. https://www.worldhistory.org/image/12397/isenheim-altarpiece/.
MLA Style
Desjardins, Vincent. "Isenheim Altarpiece." World History Encyclopedia. World History Encyclopedia, 08 Jul 2020. Web. 26 Apr 2024.
