FFCC Review Activity- Anirudh Kaushik

Name of Work / Isenheim Altarpiece
Artist / Niclaus of Haguenau and Matthias Grunewald
Style / Northern Renaissance

Image of the Work:


Form
The altarpiece involves wings (flaps) that open up to show more of the painting. Sculpted wooden altars were popular in Germany at the time and this specific one has many panels that open and close, all of them having been painted with biblical scenes. The predella essentially held the entire piece up but was also painted so as to include paintings in all parts of the piece. There are essentially two panels that are behind the first panel that is scene when closed. Most of the paintings are painted with attention to acute details, very common in Northern Renaissance, and some scenes include much use of dark colors and sickly colors to give the sense of disease within each of the individual scenes.
Function
It was created to serve as the central object of devotion in an Isenheim hospital built by the Brothers of St. Anthony. It was used to give hope to people that were experience the horrible disease of ergotism.
Content
This work is very multifaceted, however it mainly tells of St. Anthony a man who had been attacked by demons but rises up again to receive more attacks from demons until a light comes from the sky and scatters all the demons away. A Crucifixion, Annunciation, Nativity and Resurrection scene are included in the piece of work with the Crucifixion scene being shown with all panels closed and the other three being shown after opening it up. Almost all of the figures have some sort of injury or the actual disease that either look like or are ergotism. Especially in the crucifixion scene it is noticeable that there are wounds on Christ that look similar to that of ergotsim wounds.
Context
This work mainly incorporates religious beliefs and stories and was done during the Northern Renaissance, and was created during the Northern Renaissance. The work used to reside in the hospital chapel of Saint Anthony's Monastery at Isenheim, but now it is at the Unterlinden museum at Colmar, France. The work would be seen by a large number of patients suffering from the ergotism disease.