Mark "Jake" Baker
European Art History
University of California
Berkeley, CA
December 18, 1998

AN IN-DEPTH EXPLORATION OF
MATTHIAS GRUNEWALD'S

Isenheim Altarpiece

During the many years of construction and remodeling of the great European Gothic Cathedrals and Churches of the Middle Ages, artists of many mediums--including architecture, sculpture, painting, and engraving--honed their skills, so that by the time of the Reformation in 1517, many had become virtuosos in their respective fields. Though wealthy nobles and rulers also invested in the fine arts, the bulk of what has survived for our adoration and contemplation today was tied to the commissions of the Roman Catholic Church. And it deserves recognition for its ability to protect the masterpieces against tremendous odds for over four hundred years.

In order to maintain the spirit of their elaborately decorated exteriors and interiors, church directors commissioned some of the most extravagant altarpieces ever produced. For it was there, in that centralized position at the front of the nave, within the choir, that all devout followers of the faith eventually knelt to pray, to meditate, to beg the patron Saint depicted in the shrine for help in their time of need. Therefore, an altarpiece needed to be something extra-special--it needed to be able to absorb the people in its fine details and didactic content. And so most did--but no surviving altarpiece has received greater respect and admiration from art historians than Matthias's Grunewald's incredible Isenheim Altarpiece.

Some of the many credible studies and critiques of the altarpiece have made it into English translation from German; and a few English speaking authors have written about it themselves. So by correlating these works with the corresponding historical events of the period prior to and surrounding its creation, a significant relationship between the unique style and symbolism in the altarpiece and the changing era in which it was created can be established.

Indeed, it was a combination of varying degrees of political, social, philosophical, economical, and religious forces--destructive and constructive--of incredible magnitudes that acted upon the German people and influenced Matthias Grnewald's Isenheim Altarpiece. And an in-depth exploration of these intricate connections creates an appreciation for his work that goes beyond the mind and into the heart of the German people during that tumultuous period in history.

Historical Background

The Isenheim Italian Antonite Monastery and Hospital was built in the 12th century some twenty miles outside of colmar, germany, by a cult of dominican benedictine monks. these monks worshiped saint anthony--an early egyptian ascetic who was praised by none other that saint benedict himself as a genuine healer of disease(1). it was one of many orders that were originally formed to treat a gangrenous disorder resembling erysipelas or ergotism, caused by eating contaminated ryes and grains. it eventually became christened by the monks as "saint anthony's fire," or "saint anthony's revenge," depending on whether or not they determined if the inflicted individual deserved the disease for committing sins (the undeserving were not admitted into the hospital until more penance was done elsewhere).

Though renowned for their devout ascetics, humble vita contemplativa (inner contemplation of the self), and mystical ways of the imitatio Christi (imitation of the life of Christ), only the Isenheim monks could boast of possession of the relics of Saint Anthony. And so they became the most revered of the orders in the Upper Rhine and a popular pilgrimage site, and continued to treat terminal diseases throughout the Middle Ages, especially The Black Death(2).

By 1470, the popular but small church needed more room to accommodate patients and pilgrims, and through a generous endowment from Savoyard Jean d'Orliac, major renovation began and was completed in 1500 under the direction of Sicilian Abbot Guido Guersi. He then commissioned a new altarpiece to take the place of the original, done by the notable painter Martin Schonagaurer, with sculpture by Niclas Hagnowerand and painted panels by Matthias Grunewald. And there it remained from 1515 until the French Revolution, when the panels were hastily pried from the substructure and safely stored out of harm's way. Then, in the 1800's, the church burned down, taking the substructure and the elaborate sculptured scroll work and pinnacle down with it. So the charred remains and safely stored panels were moved to the Unterlinden Dominican Convent in Colmar, where the entire piece was reconstructed and displayed to the public for the first time in 1852(3).

It was there that Grunewald's panels were soon "discovered" by the German Expressionist painters, who placed emphasis on the expression of an artist's feelings and experiences; they truly appreciated his highly charged emotional content, rejection of realism, and distortion of nature(4). Stored during WWII in Munich, it was again restored and exhibited in the Alte Pinakothek, then brought back to Unterlinden where it remains to this day. It has been separated into the three sections for displaying convenience.

But what attests to the panel's immense value to modern art historians is not just the qualities appreciated by the Expressionists, nor the spiritually intense and poetic depictions of Christian salvation (so easily traceable to Middle Ages art), nor the dynamic spirit or mastery of the palette. Grunewald challenges the experts with his complex symbolisms not so easily construed--a sign of changing times and permissive artistic liberties--prompting ongoing debates and attempts to decipher the inherent meanings held within it.

Content and Form

In its existing form, the panels and sculpture stand an amazing nine feet tall and twenty-two feet wide. yet some observers describe it as both slender and elegant. because of the destructive fire, the original size of the structure and pinnacle is uncertain. it consists of a carved wooden sculpture, which sits on a similarly constructed base (called the predella) with adjustable painted wooden panels of the same height and half its width, which were once attached to its sides. this permitted the monks to adjust the panels and reveal different scenes for different feast or holy days in an order not completely known. all surfaces are covered in oil-based paint.

With the exception of Saints Sebastian and Anthony, all the main characters and scenes are easily identifiable. In what used to be a closed position is the Crucifixion; the middle position is the Annunciation, the Incarnation (or Nativity), and the Resurrection; and the open position, the Shrine, which focuses on Saint Anthony.

Saint Sebastian was an early Christian who became a high-ranking officer in the Roman army and secretly hid his faith in order to protect his fellow devotees. Eventually discovered, he was ordered to be shot with bow and arrow and was left for dead; however, he survived and reclaimed his faith, at which time the emperor himself ordered Sebastian to be clubbed to death in a Roman arena in 288 A.D. He soon became one of the most renowned of the Roman martyrs, whose spirit was worshipped as being an effective cure for disease. He is depicted in early Italian art as being tied to a tree and full of arrows(5).

Saint Anthony, or Anthony the Hermit, c. 251-356, is of paramount importance in this work, for he is the patron saint of the Antonites. He became known as the patriarch of all saints after he established the first religious community of desert hermit monks, called the Thebiads, in 305, who served as role models for all Western monks. His life was compared to the life of Christ because he was believed to be one of the first ascetics to go into the desert, battle Satan's demons, defeat their temptations, and therefore become endowed with the power to protect and heal both man and beast. However, he was also judgmental, for he could inflict maladies upon those so deserving(6). Like Sebastian, his spirit was called upon to heal disease, particularly his namesake, "St. Anthony's Fire." He is always depicted in ancient art holding a thin cross and escorting a pig ("Nor over the pig does the Devil have power")(7).

When all the panels were folded back, the viewers were treated to The Shrine, consisting of a sculptured portion and two side panels. This composition best exemplifies just how important Saint Anthony was to the Isenheim order: his carved statuette is centrally seated upon a throne in a location and likeness worthy of God. He sits directly above a small bust of Jesus (who is surrounded by His apostles in the predella) and is hierarchically flanked by size to a pair of worshiping and eminent Church doctors and teachers, Saints Augustine and Jerome (who were also his biographers)(8), the commissioner Orliac, and two commoners bearing gifts. Niclas Hagnowerand's sculpture is an excellent example of the Late Gothic style, with its lavish use of gold paint and realistic faces, hands, and draping--but this is where old-world conventionality ends.

On the two attached winged panels Grunewald's genius comes to light, beginning with scenes which emphasize Anthony's imitatio Christi; and it is here that we experience his fantastic imagination and mastery of the medium of oil-based paint. As described in biographies by Athanasius, his Vita B. Antonii, and Saint Jerome, his Vita B. Pauli(9), are two of the most important events in Saint Anthony's life: on the right is The Temptation of Saint Anthony by the Devil's army of demons; and on the right is his Meeting with Paul the Hermit in the Desert.

The Temptation scene is one of the classic religious "good verses evil," or "spirit verses the flesh" battles. Here the demons attack and beat poor Anthony, have burned down his retreat, and try to fight an angel sent to rescue him. But these demons are moronic, comical, and surreal in their grotesqueness, borrowed from an earlier engraving by Schongaurer on the same theme(10), and they bear striking resemblance to Hieronymus Bosch's demons in "The Garden of Earthly Delights." But where Bosch's demons express complete hopelessness, these fools apprear to be able to be out-witted, having been denied what was cherished most by ascetics--intelligence and wisdom. And gone are the spiny torsos of figures past, as these have fullness and mass and, along with rich coloration, are so brought to life. According the Vita B. Antonii, God finally sent Anthony a ray of light from heaven, but only after he was convinced he was sincere, at which point the demons vanished and Anthony arose with more power than he had possessed before.

The Desert scene illustrates the final step and humble reward for an ascetics undying devotion and constant search for knowledge and truth...after conquering his demons, Anthony has gone even deeper into the desert in search of Paul, the most holy of ascetics, to receive the ultimate truth. Paul's ancient forested paradise, blossoming in the middle of the desert, is uniquely surreal, alive with vegetation, medicinal herbs used to treat "Saint Anthony's Fire," subservient animals, and a complete list of the Vita B. Paui legend's accoutrements: the cave for shelter, the palm tree for food and clothing, the raven for transporting his Communion bread, the stream running in the valley for water--indeed, a very complete and mystical setting.

Here Anthony receives his enlightenment, symbolized by the gift of Communion bread sent from God. Grunewald combines a humanistic and individualistic search for the truth with the mystical search for the divine, as both the realms of the intellect and the spirit are awakened in Anthony.

In both panels, Grunewald brings our attention down to the center of the action with asymmetrical linages, triangles, and his use of contrasting colors. In The Temptation, the duality of the good verses evil struggle is emphasized twice. First, there is the cool blue-grey light of the sky and whitish-blue mountains of low intensity, in which God and the angel hover in a ball of fire, which clashes with the low value and high intensity browns of the sloping structures. And second, the beating takes place down in front of a black and dark-blue back-drop, over which the progressively higher valued earth tones of the demons combine with the asymmetrical slopes of their clubs and arms, converging upon the profoundly bright face and beard of Anthony.

In The Desert, the surreal vegetation, quite a unique representation for its day, adds focus upon the figures through color contrast and direct vertical relationships. The rock formations's brown and green hues of high intensity and value, and the palm tree's brown hues of low intensity and value, are directly above the heads of the saints, and are in contrast to their own color schemes. This allows the eye of the viewer to make clear distinction between them, as well as directing it to gently fall down upon them. The whites of the character's beards and the light upon their faces emphasizes their Holy Communion, as Paul jesters the offer and Anthony gratefully receives.

In the middle position, painted panels covered The Shrine and its Predella and exposed two new wings as well. From left to right are The Annunciation, The Incarnation, and The Resurrection. A small Lamentation covered the predella.

In The Annunciation, the Virgin Mary contemplates Isaiah 7:14-15, which predicts her own fate and the coming of salvation for humankind. She recoils in shock by the impetuous entrance of the flying angel Gabriel, whose cape still flows forward after his abrupt halt. The pointed arches of a Gothic church create what appears to be two sections of a private booth within an ambulatory. A wonderfully rich red curtain, representing the Rose of Her virginity, has been drawn back so that the viewer is blessed with witnessing the event. Also bearing witness is the Prophet Isaiah in the upper left corner, who displays his own version of the text; and appearing out of the dispersed light from the windows is the Holy Spirit, manifested as a dove.

The Gothic arches, presented in a convincing vanishing point perspective, Mary and Gabriel's flowing and delicate draperies, and the subtle reflections of light from the windows make it clear that Grunewald was knowledgeable and skilled in the new techniques commonly associated with the Italian Renaissance art movement. Yet it is also apparent that it was not his intention to "show off" new skills nor "idealize" the human form, but to incorporate them into a religious context in order to provide viewers with a more realistic vision of Christian symbolism.

It is The Incarnation that has won the respect and admiration of art historians for its complex and obscure symbolism, sparking serious debate and speculation as to the precise meanings. It consists of two unrelated events in space and time--yet they are obviously meant to be interpreted together. A separation between these two events--the darkened scene on the left, depicting a small temple containing various small figures, and the daylight scene on the right, depicting the Virgin Mary holding the Christ child--is achieved by a large black curtain(11).

On the right is The Nativity, which represents the coming of Christ and of the New Testament, the ending of the Old Testament and its laws, triumph over evil, and the beginning of the redemption of mankind. Some symbolic accoutrements shown are: the fig tree of the Old Testament peaking out from behind the curtain, a covered bath and cruet of oil for baptism, and God and angels witnessing the event from above(12). More controversial symbolic elements are the crib and chamber pot(13).

The Virgin Mary and baby Jesus have bodily proportions and attire that are portrayed with realism (Mary's dress is mended as she holds Jesus in a tattered blanket). They are highlighted by their larger size, their faint gold halos, and the abundance of natural light shinning upon them. The coloration of the pale whitish-grey blanket, the chalk-skinned youth, and the high intensity and low value of Mary's red dress, help to emphasize their importance.

But the artist paid no attention to perspectives between the figures and his background, choosing instead to rely on an abundance of early Christian symbolism: the enclosed garden and rose bush represent her virginity; the fig tree alludes to her ability to bear fruit without fertilization; and the shepherds are there to receive gifts from angels.

The Virgin Mary is shown in a deep state of contemplative rapture of the baby Jesus, who is showing her two beads of his rosary in a silent and divine communion of some message. One interpretation is that the vision being shown to her by Jesus is indeed the scene contained in the left panel(14).

This scene in the left panel is from an entirely different world, though is obviously in at least partial observance of the Nativity. Housed in an ornate Gothic temple in horror vacui (the fear of empty space) are Old Testament prophets, including Moses, and a variety of angels of both good and bad intent. The good angels are in the foreground, highlighted with intense hues of orange, red, and yellow, signifying their connection to the light of God. The curtain clearly keeps the more recessed bad angels from viewing what is happening in the right panel. They are emersed in deathly looking hues of low valued greens and blues.

The one element that has sparked the most controversy is the green, feathered angel propped up against the back temple wall. This vain little angel, sporting pristine combed feathers and the coif of a peacock(15), may be none other that Lucifer himself, celebrating a birth of obvious importance, but in complete bewilderment of whose birth it really is. He attempts to glimpse up at the source of light, up to God, in an effort to gain some clue--but cannot see beyond the curtain. He has been fooled, and his contract with God for human souls will be broken after the Crucifixion(16).

The Resurrection panel is a absolute tour de force in religious art. Nowhere before or since has Christ's Easter-night emergence from the catacomb of corporeal existence been so well depicted. Here Grunewald combines the Resurrection and the Ascension of Christ(17) , showing Him not as a man of the world, but as a transforming phantom of light who has achieved a transubstantiation of matter. His arms and head form the sign of the Omega(18). From his heart emanates a fireball against a starry night sky, which exudes from His head and wounds, illuminating the surrounding area. His white azure shroud dangles behind Him as His ruby-red cape gusts upward with Him. The light of God is a trinity of incandescent yellow, vermilion and aquamarine, as Grunewald displays the entire visible light spectrum in one resplendent cascade.

The guards, men of a dark and decaying world, adorned with uniforms rife with rust and moth holes, are thrust aside by the force of His exit, and must shelter their eyes from the light. Signaling that man too can be saved from the seemingly endless cycle of birth, damnation and death, this scene of Christian hope for salvation incorporates Italian Renaissance touches, for all men are shown as individuals and there is no horror vacui, Christ's body and robes are displayed in humanistic elegance, and the focus of light upon the figures, in order to bring them into the forefront from a dark background, bears similarities to Da Vinci's Madonna of the Rocks--but here again the methods are used only for a more realistic portrayal so as to produce a more profound spiritual and emotional effect for the viewer.

In what was once the fully closed position is one of the most striking illustrations of The Crucifixion ever represented in art. According to Antonite statues of 1478, all newly arriving patients to the hospital were required to be brought before this horrible sight(19). Depicted upon the summit of Mount Calvary, in standard Medieval order of hierarchial importance and division of threes, are the center Crucifixion panel bordered by panels of the living statues of Saint Sebastian and Saint Anthony. Within the Crucifixion panel, Christ is flanked by John the Evangelist, the Virgin Mary, and a small Mary Magdalene on His right, with John the Baptist on His left.

Neither Sebastian nor Anthony acknowledge the sacrifice, but instead are there to further emphasize their imiatio Christi and their importance to the dire mission of the Antonite hospital order. Both share a facial expression of serious vita comtemplativa--the stern rapture of concern for the suffering of humankind and as having been released from the bonds of human suffering--and both are shown draped in red, a sign of their divine purity.

Sebastian is bathed in diffused light and covered in a beautiful and intense red hued toga of medium value; he is free from the ropes that held him to the sparsely foliaged Roman column, now recessed in the shadows; he is free from the material world depicted in the landscape behind him; and he is free from the pain of the arrows, some of which still penetrate his body and some of which have been removed and placed on the ground. Two angels bring him his crown of martyrdom from the heavens above. Though Grunewald's Sebastian displays the artist's ability to render a true vision of the idealistic human body of the Renaissance, it is limited to the hands and feet, and realism is emphasized in the muscle tone and in the face.

Anthony is detached and impervious to the darkness from which he is emerging and from the vehement action of the furious demon above his shoulder. He pulls his red cape around him so as to reflect more of the eternal light that shines upon him in the direction of the demon.

In the center panel is The Crucifixion itself. This scene shows the gruesome reality of crucifying. There hangs the individual presence of an enormous and grotesquely tortured Christ, pitifully helpless and dead--a frightening vision of monumental suffering and the inevitability of pain and death. He is twice as large and therefore twice as brutalized as any other man. Gone is the spiny figure or grace of prior crucifixion scenes. Here, His sheer weight buckles the cross-member. In every portion of his body are punctures from thorns and tears for the flagellation, as seen in a prior "Flagellation of Christ" painting by Wolfgang Katzheimer the Elder, c. 1485. Saint Bonaventura's The Perfect Life, chapter 6:6 states, "There was no place on His body not ravaged by torments. From the soles of His feet to the crown on His head, no spot on Him was left hale."(20) His shoulders are torn from their sockets, his feet are mangled around a blood-soaked stake, his crown penetrates his shoulders, his green lips surround a gaping mouth and teeth lined in blood, and rigor mortis has frozen his hands in the position of his last cry out to God, "Why hast Thou forsaken me?!" His coloration is a combination of deathly browns and greens of high value and low intensity, highlighted by the gaping wounds of deep red hues of low value and high intensity.

Mary has collapsed in a swoon of ecstatic surrender into a mystical connection with the divine, her face gone completely pale. She is enveloped in a white dress of low value befitting of a nun, representing a monastic life. John the Evangelist prevents her from hitting the ground, his own emotional outburst perhaps signaling the New Testament call to men to finally accept and express their feelings. The diminutive Mary Magdellan represents all humankind's connection with the Crucifixion, and her size alludes to the shortness of earthly life. Her beautiful blond tresses and flowing orange dress of low intensity and high value again display the artist's mastery of color and form. All three characters are appropriately placed on Christ's right side, the side of divine blessing.

On His left is John the Baptist, who wears the expression of a calm and fearless ascetic that possesses a knowledge of predestination, where grief has no meaning. Serving a didactic function, John was a Holy man, but a recluse not of the world; he holds in his hands the old laws, and as he points to Christ, he hands the responsibility of bringing into the world the new law, the New Testament, to Christ. In John 1:29, the Baptist first announced, "He is the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world"; and now the Baptist recites John 3:30, "He must increase, but I must decrease." This Old Law desert preacher of repentance is also declaring that his voice, the voice of man, can now finally give way to the voice of God through Jesus Christ. Celebrated as the first anchorite, John the Baptist is now free to become a humble follower, for he is no longer needed as the "voice crying out in the wilderness." On Christ's left side, he represents all sinners, who can now, through Christ's sacrifice, triumph over evil and attain salvation; and his lamb willingly sacrifices itself to atone for our sins(21).

The characters are all detached from the eerie black-green twilight world behind them, so devoid of light, love or compassion. They have been abandoned by the historical multitudes and horror vacui usually presented in Crucifixion scenes, and left in the isolated and lonely light of the foreground. The terrain underfoot is of a desert of barren brown hues of varying intensities of lower values. The entire scene reeks of a ghastly experience of life, directly personal and human, unaffected by Church dogma and ecclesiastic teachings. It beckons a personal and individual search for truth and salvation within.

Historical Context

As wonderful as it is for art enthusiasts to admire the great masterpieces of old as the objects of timeless beauty that they indeed are, by exploring and analyzing their superb content and form, it is all too often that a very crucial element is ignored or neglected to varying degrees--the historical circumstances surrounding the period of their creation, which undoubtedly had great influence upon the masters' creative processes.

To be deprived of such significant background information, for whatever reason, is to be disconnected from a complete understanding of the masters' true intentions, and thus diminish the richness of the encounter. But to include the exploration of the historical context within which the masterpieces were created helps a modern society to visualize the many crucial contributions of the period that would otherwise be obscured by years of social change. Only then can we fully appreciate the few surviving pieces which still bless our presence. For within the masterpieces of the past are buried many clues that can help us understand the totality of our present and future lives, and they are just waiting to be uncovered.

And in the admiration of the surviving masterpieces of Western Europe prior to the beginnings of the Protestant Reformation of 1517 in Germany, the historical context is especially significant, for such was a very tumultuous time, filled with great revolutions in politics, religion, and philosophy of such magnitude that the era could easily rival our own.

During the Middle Ages, from 1378-1442, Germany was in chaos: the Bubonic Plague had ravaged Europe from 1350-1450, depleting the population by one-third; the Holy Roman Empire that ruled Germany, consisting of three archbishops and numerous Saxon princes, became disjointed after the death of Charles IV in 1378, broke ties with Rome, and erupted in civil war until 1442; and the Roman Catholic Church--long considered by Germans to be a corrupt, rigid, domineering, and foreign institution that owned their land and took away their wealth--fell into the Great Schism(22).

All this disease, civil war, and uncertainty instilled upon the demoralized multitudes a pessimistic outlook upon their lives, and encouraged them to take a private and personal look--a realistic look--at their situation. They felt they could no longer trust the existing political and religious institutions that had failed them and so began to search for their own identity and demand their independence. Because the Saxon princes were not cooperating with each other, there was no centralized authority in Germany, so the political optimists wanted unification. Because the Church was disjointed and corrupt, the warring princes envisioned the take-over of Church property as part of their spoils(23), the conservative religious leaders wanted to instill reforms in existing doctrine, devotees wanted substance and meaning to their faith, and others simply looked elsewhere, as a great diversity of religious opinions and organizations began to form behind the Church's back. And because of the inherent oppression of the feudal system and the extreme decrease of the labor force from the Plague, the serfs saw an opportunity to increase their civil rights(24). All this tension eventually combined over the years and exploded in the Reformation of 1521 and the Peasant's War of 1524(25).

About the only unifying force left over from the Middle Ages that was still present in Germany in 1500 and still held in high regard by the majority of the populace were the numerous and ornate Gothic Churches and cathedrals scattered throughout the country. These settings still offered relief from the harsh realities that all citizens, rich or poor, faced in the outside world--for no one was left untouched by war or plague. And so the Germans maintained a love and respect for these monuments to Christian ideals, which they themselves had built, and continued to maintain them and seek solace within them.

And as the artisans of the Middle Ages honed their skills on the church exteriors and interiors, the church commissioners began to accept the new techniques being developed that were giving such realistic portrayals of religious figures. Indeed, the commissioners were also affected by the changing times and turmoil, were loosening up on strict church dogma, and became more and more willing to accept a more liberal attitude in their choices of art.

Two important ideologies that heavily influenced the change in Germany's attitude came pouring over the Alps from the Italian Renaissance: Humanism and Mysticism.

Humanism, the idealistic philosophy based on ancient Greek and Roman cultures and their Platonic ideal of the perfect human form, began to influence Germany circa 1450. Besides idealizing the human body, as was reflected in Italian art, it preached that people should take an intellectual attitude towards life, and that an individual who developed the intellect would naturally develop moral perfection. It also believed in spiritual freedom and in the independent personality. Brought into the country by Erasmus, c. 1466-1536, Johann Reuchlin, c. 1455-1522, and Ulrich Von Huttem, c. 1488-1523, these reformers represented the hopes and aspirations of most Germans(26). They preached that even lay people must learn to read the Bible and the other newly discovered ancient texts to find their own truth and follow their own conscience. Called the "Doctrine of Universal Priesthood," they denied the absolute authority of the Catholic Clergy(27) and instilled in Germans the desire to educate themselves to confirm their suspicions that the papacy was misrepresenting Christ's true teachings to achieve its own ends--power and wealth(28) . It seems that Germans firmly believed that the Roman Catholic Church, if it were to justify owning their land and taking their wealth back to Italy, should at least practice what it preached(29).

The Mysticism of Saint Francis of Assisi was brought over by Master Eckhart, circa 1350(30). Like Francis, Eckhart preached inner contemplation and the beauty of nature at the Cologne Cathedral: "Within every individual, there is a spark of the divine essence which is forever seeking to return to God, found in all that lives, breathes, withers and dies." This philosophy preached the pantheistic doctrine of opening up the mind, heart and soul through prayer, inner contemplation, and the freeing of the imagination. It was claimed that this would develop intuition beyond logic and reasoning, into full union with God, where the spirit can soar above worldly difficulties while still participating in them(31).

From these two great philosophies, the Germans took what they needed and rejected the rest. From Humanism, the Italian version was too optimistic and ecumenical for the more orthodox German reformers, but it none-the-less was a powerful motivating tool for them. They preferred the early Christian documents and the New Testament to old Greek and Roman literature, and preferred the old, traditional and simplistic ways of the early Christians to the hedonistic ways of the Romans. Therefore, they rejected the Italian penchant for the Platonic idealism of the human body, as portrayed in ancient Greek and Roman art, and the liberal attitudes towards life and love attributed to them--but they kept the importance of the individual and of the development of the intellect. From Mysticism, they also rejected the idealistic love for nature and beauty--but they kept the emphasis on prayer and inner contemplation.

These unique set of ideals became known as what Germans proudly referred to as Christian Humanism, a decidedly realistic approach that accepted life for what it was, preparing them to face reality and try to reform society's ills. It also further paved a path around the hierarchial tyranny of the clergy and the bonds of physical suffering, towards true independence. Sweeping the nation, it was soon condemned by the Pope(32).

But the wide-spread success of these philosophies could not possibly have advanced with the speed at which they did without Germany's own greatest invention of all time--the moveable type printing press. Johannes Gutenburg, circa 1365-1468, produced the first movable type and published the first Bible in Mainz in 1455. By 1500, between six to nine million inexpensive and portable pocket-sized books and pamphlets flooded Europe, containing all sorts of controversial subjects--an information explosion comparable to our own computer age(33). Naturally, the Church tried, but failed, to control and censor output. But knowledge and new ideas continued to spread rampant, and the newly educated Germans studied their scriptures and became furious at abusive papal misinterpretations of Christ's true doctrine.

Conclusion

Grunewald incorporated the new christian humanism and all the tension it contained into the altarpiece by establishing traditional religious themes and symbolism, then boldly adding many new and controversial symbolisms of his own--most evident in the incarnation and the crucifixion(34). he also showed his skill and familiarity with all the new techniques attributed to the italian renaissance artists. he replaced spiny figures with full-figured individualistic human beings with realistic bodily proportions, as in sebastian and anthony, and of christ and the guards in the resurrection. it can even be said that the resurrected christ is indeed the platonic figure of the ideal human, though he is clearly not meant to be a human being at this point. grunewald further displays the new techniques in his abandonment of horror vacui in favor of space for some scenes; yet he does use it in others, such as in the temptation of anthony, purely for effect; and again in his focusing of light upon the foreground figures in the crucifixion. he also borrowed concepts from his contemporaries, durer and bosch, for his demons and god image, and learned from the flemish artists about the portrayal of realistic hands and faces(35). He further displayed the new technique of vanishing point perspective in the annunciation.

And Grunewald used all these influences as a means to achieve his own ends: to render an altarpiece for the Italian Antonites that would effectively convey the serious and sober message that they needed to impart to their dying patients--that only through identification with the suffering of, and complete surrender to, the spirits of Christ, the Virgin Mary, Saint Anthony, Saint Sebastian and all the other supportive saints depicted in the panels, would they achieve salvation upon their death. And in so doing, he expressed the impassioned feelings of the generation to which he so closely identified.

The fact that almost nothing is known about the artist, Mathis Gothart-Neithardt, born 1475 in Wurzburg and court painter to the Arch Bishop of Mainz, does not mean that an understanding of the man is not possible. On the contrary, by combining the critique of the art work itself and the information uncovered in the exploration of the historical context in which it was created, we have come to an understanding of the scope of his talent and how he was affiliated with his people and how they reacted to their times. He was certainly a unique, highly individualized, and gifted artist--a master of the palette who had complete knowledge of the methods available to him. But he was much more than that: he had a wild imagination that could easily mingle realistic and visionary concepts--from the comforting to the terrifying--and he used that imagination to find a new way to express old Middle Age religious themes in grandiose style, employing psychological and emotional content unique in his day. Indeed, the sparseness of information on him hardly diminishes the impact of the times upon his Isenheim Altarpiece, with its beauty, complexity, and enormous impact on the world of art.

Notes

1. Georg Scheja, The Isenheim Altarpiece (New York: Abrams, 1969) 8.
2. James Snyder, Northern Renaissance Art (New York: Abrams, 1985) 348.
3. Scheja 12.
4. "Expressionism," World Book Encyclopedia, 1966 ed.
5. The Benedictine Monks, The Book of Saints (New York: Crowell, 1966) 630.
6. Benedictine 70.
7. Scheja 8.
8. Scheja 27.
9. Scheja 27.
10. Scheja fig.29.
11. Ed. note: this curtain was cut off by the printers office. But it is a floor-to-ceiling drapery that has been pulled back on its runner to expose the Virgin Mary to the inhabitants of the temple.
12. Scheja 51. Also, this type of depiction of God and angels within a mandala is very similar to Bosch's "The Last Judgement" of the same era.
13. Ruth Mellincoff, The Devil at Isenheim (Berkeley: UC Press, 1988) 60.
14. Scheja 46.
15. Mellinkoff 19,25. Not biblical in origin: Lucifer's pride and vanity (he was the most beautiful angel) were the first of all sins, and caused him and his followers to be cast out of heaven; his fall is depicted by the Limbourg Brothers in Tres Riches Heures "Fall of Lucifer and the Rebel Angels," c. 1413. Here, Lucifer is shown in transformation, with a peacock feathered crest, after he tempted Adam and Eve, so that all their relatives would inherit sin, death and Satan's domination. A God-man was now necessary for God to instigate human redemption. Leonardo da Vinci notes on vainglory; "the peacock being more subject to it than any other creature...this is the last vice that can be conquered." The peacock crest appears in many garden of eden serpents, including Durer's 1504 engraving, "The Fall of Man," and in his 1511 woodcut of the same name.
16. Jeffery Russell, Lucifer: The Devil in the Middle Ages (New York: Ithaca, 1964) 263. Known as the Ransom Theory, or deception of Satan. A popular belief of the Middle Ages not found in the Bible: Satan was tricked by God into attempting to claim the sinless soul of Christ, His Son, after the Crucifixion in order to break the contract Satan enabling him to claim all human souls upon their deaths. The Incarnation was to disguise Christ's divinity, so God could trick Satan and redeem mankind. In German plays c. 1510, Satan hears rumors of a God-man birth, but is incapable of understanding reports of the sacrificial "lamb," and so was confounded by the incarnation. Also, Christ wept upon birth to further conceal His true identity.
17. Scheja 36. Not directly described in the Bible. In Matthew 28:1-7, three women visit the empty tomb and are greeted by an angel, who tells them that Christ is gone; creative minds developed the various legends. Italians preferred to depict Him in a soaring motion above the tomb, as has Grunewald.
18. Otto Benesch, Art of the Renaissance in Northern Europe (London: Phaidon, 1895) 35. Revelation 22:13, Christ tells John the Baptist, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."
19. Mellinkoff 3.
20. Scheja 60.
21. Scheja 59.
22. T. Wallbank et. al., Civilization Past & Present (Palo Alto: Scott, Foresman, 1970) 65.
23. Benesch 26.
24. Gerhart Hoffmeister, Renaissance and Reformation in Germany (New York: Ungar, 1977) 12.
25. Wallbank 65.
26. Wallbank 67.
27. Lawrence S. Cunningham et. al., Culture and Values (Texas: Harcourt Brace, 1994) 319.
28. Benesch 61.
29. Wallbank 65.
30. James Snyder, Northern Renaissance Art (New York: Abrams, 1985) 138.
31. "Mysticism," World Book Encyclopedia, 1966 ed.
32. Benesch 26.
33. Cunningham 278.
34. Mellinkoff 45.
35. Scheja 23.