"The Crucifixion: Isenheim Altarpiece"

The painting forms part of Grünewald’s largest and most significant commission: the famed Isenheim Altarpiece. Grünewald’s principal source for Christ’s intensely mangled and damaged body was the fourteenth century Revelations by St Bridget. While it was common to dramatize the agony and torment of Christ’s passion in German devotional art of the late Middle Ages, Grünewald’s picture of Christ is unsurpassed in its unflinching depiction of suffering and pain. This painting portrays the agony of Christ with a penetrating forcefulness seen neither before nor since.

The altarpiece was commissioned by the Antonite Order for the hospital at their monastery in Isenheim, Alsace. The hospital primarily treated skin diseases, including St Anthony’s Fire (what is today known as ergotism). The patients of the hospital would likely have identified with Christ’s torment and pain, and the hospital staff would have been encouraged to treat their patients as they would Christ. The painting also offers the hope of salvation after suffering; a comforting thought in a hospital setting. It suggests that true healing will come from Christ and faith in his sacrifice. Sombre, dramatic, and affecting, the Altarpiece is Grünewald’s uncontested masterpiece.