{"id":6646,"date":"2025-04-06T16:14:40","date_gmt":"2025-04-06T20:14:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/creatureandcreator.ca\/?p=6646"},"modified":"2025-04-06T21:38:56","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T01:38:56","slug":"mathis-der-maler-the-isenheim-altarpiece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/creatureandcreator.ca\/?p=6646","title":{"rendered":"Mathis der Maler: the Isenheim Altarpiece"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Very little is known about the life of Matthias Gr\u00fcnewald, a painter (German Maler<\/em>) who worked in the early decades of the 16th<\/sup> Century in Germany. He is renowned for the pictures he created between 1512 and 1516 for the altarpiece of the Monastery of Saint Anthony in Isenheim in southern Alsace. The face of Saint Sebastian in one of these paintings (above) is considered to be a self-portrait.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Life of Mathis der Maler<\/strong><\/p>\n

Very few details are available about the life of the painter who came to be known as Matthias Gr\u00fcnewald (Anderson, 2003). His first name has been considered as Matthias, Matthis or Mathis. His surname is disputable: Nithart, Neithardt, Gothart or Gothardt. The name \u201cGr\u00fcnewald\u201d (green wood) was given to him by his first biographer, Joachim van Sandrart, about a century and a half after his death. The major confusion in his biography is whether Mathis Nithart and Mathis Gothart were one or two people. My intuition is that they were two distinct individuals: one a master painter and the other a water artist (builder of fountains), who also worked as an assistant painter (cf Bruhn, 1998, pp 21-42; Sebald, 1988, 2002).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Given this intuition, the main stages of Gr\u00fcnewald\u2019s biography are as follows. He was born in about 1480 in Aschaffenburg. After learning the techniques of painting, he worked for the episcopal court of Mainz, painting altarpieces in several churches in Frankfurt. In 1512, he married Anna, a young woman of Jewish descent who had recently converted to Christianity, and bought a house near the cathedral in Frankfurt. In the same year he was commissioned to paint the altarpiece in the Monastery of Saint Anthony in Isenheim. While he worked on the altarpiece, Anna stayed in Frankfurt. Gr\u00fcnewald was assisted in Isenheim by an older painter, Matthis von W\u00fcrzburg, and the two men lived together. After finishing the Isenheim altarpiece, they returned to Frankfurt. Gr\u00fcnewald continued to paint under the patronage of Cardinal Albrecht von Brandenburg, who was the Archbishop of Mainz from 1514-1545 and the Archbishop of Magdeburg from 1513-1545. Albrecht, one of the most powerful prelates in the Holy Roman Empire, was a patron of artists such as Albrecht D\u00fcrer, Lucas Cranach the Elder, and Matthias Gr\u00fcnewald. \u00a0<\/p>\n

These were times of great social upheaval. Luther published his Ninety-Five Theses<\/em> (A Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences<\/em>) in 1517. These were specifically addressed to Albrecht von Brandenburg, who used indulgences to support his life of luxury and patronage. The theses marked the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.<\/p>\n

The German Peasants\u2019 War (Deutscher Bauernkrieg<\/em>) began in 1524. Though partly related to the Lutheran rebellion against the Catholic Church, the revolt was mainly directed at the feudal aristocracy. Some of the reformist clergy supported the peasants. However, Luther was terrified of the anarchy that might result, and encouraged the nobility to eliminate the rebellious peasants. Pitchforks were no match for artillery. Over 100,000 peasants were massacred and the revolt came to an end in 1525. It is not known whether Gr\u00fcnewald participated in the rebellion, or how he was affected by it. His friend died in 1528 in Halle where he was working as a hydraulic engineer. Gr\u00fcnewald appears to have moved back to Aschaffenburg where he died in 1532.<\/p>\n

A portrait in the Chicago Art Institute, initialed MN, has been considered as a possible self-portrait by Gr\u00fcnewald (Mathis Nithart), though its authenticity and dating is unclear. My intuition is that it is the work of the young Gr\u00fcnewald and that it dates to about 1500. The following is the portrait and its description by Sebald in his poem After Nature<\/em> (1988, translated by Hamburger, 2002)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The small maple panel
shows a scarcely twenty-year-old
at the window of a narrow room.
Behind him, on a shelf not quite
in perspective, pots of paint,
a crayon, a seashell and a precious Venetian
glass filled with a translucent essence.
In one hand the painter holds
a finely carved knife of bone
with which to trim the drawing-pen
before continuing work on a female nude
that lies in front of him next to an inkwell.
Through the window on his left a
landscape with mountain and valley
and the curved line of a path is visible.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Hospital Brothers of Saint Anthony <\/strong><\/p>\n

Saint Anthony the Great (251-356 CE) was a Christian monk from Egypt who lived most of his adult live alone in the desert. At the beginning of his desert life, he was assailed by monstrous demons and tempted by seductive women. Despite a severe asceticism bordering on starvation, he nevertheless lived to be 105 years old. Although he was buried in the desert, his remains were miraculously discovered about two centuries after his death and transferred to Constantinople. In 980, a French count named Jocelin de Ch\u00e2teauneuf bought the relics from Constantinople to a monastery in what is now known as Is\u00e8re in the French Alps. The relics were found to alleviate a disease characterized by skin inflammation, gangrene, hallucinations and convulsions that often broke out in devastating epidemics. In 1095 Gaston de Valloire founded the Hospital Brothers of Saint Anthony (also known as the Antonines) in gratitude for his son\u2019s miraculous cure. The Abbey of Saint Antoine in Is\u00e8re became the mother church of the order.<\/p>\n

The disease came to be known as \u201cSaint Anthony\u2019s Fire.\u201d The cause was the consumption of bread made from rye contaminated by the fungus Claviceps purpurea <\/em>(Grzybowski et al, 2021). The fungus produces ergotamine and other compounds: these cause peripheral vasoconstriction and excessive stimulation of the central nervous system. The nature of the disease, however, was not known in the Middle Ages: it was first attributed to blighted rye in 1676 by Denis Dodart, but the fungus itself was not identified until the 19th<\/sup> Century.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Grateful patients gave land and money to the Antonines. This support allowed them to establish other hospitals in various locations in France, and later in other European countries. The Isenheim monastery in southern Alsace was founded around 1300. As the years went by, the Antonine hospitals also treated patients who suffered from leprosy, from the Black Death (an epidemic of bubonic plague) in the 14th<\/sup> Century, and from the syphilis epidemics of the 16th<\/sup> Century. The program of treatment involved prayer and the application of vinous extracts from the saint\u2019s relics in Is\u00e8re (Saint vinage<\/em>). Whatever success occurred, however, was likely the result of the concomitant improvement in hygiene and nutrition. \u00a0<\/p>\n

In 1505, the Antonines at Isenheim commissioned a carved wooden altarpiece from Niklaus Hagenauer (Mayr, 2003). The altarpiece contains a gilded central statue of Saint Anthony, flanked by Saint Augustine of Hippo and Saint Jerome: asceticism aided by doctrine and by scripture. The predella of the altarpiece contains polychrome statues of Christ and the 12 apostles. In 1512 the Antonines asked Gr\u00fcnewald (Mathis der Maler) to adorn the altar with paintings (Hayum, 1989; Scheja, 1969; R\u00e9au, 1920; Sieger, 2025). Over the next 4 years he created two fixed wings, two sets of retractable wings painted on both sides, and a cover for the predella The retractable wings could be opened to provide three distinct views of the altar. An animation of the opening is provided below. This has been adapted from that at the SmartHistory<\/a> website, and provided with a brief excerpt of music from the first movement of Hindemith\u2019s symphony Mathis der Maler<\/em>. Following that is a diagrammatic representation of the three views.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/creatureandcreator.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/isenheim-tp-version.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

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First View of the Altarpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

Other than on holy days, the altarpiece was kept closed and the viewer was presented with the terrifying representation of the crucified Christ. The scene is set in the darkness that fell \u201cover all the land\u201d (Matthew<\/em> 27: 45) as Christ died. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The gigantic body of the dead Christ is rendered with brutal naturalism and seems to leap out at one with redoubled violence, as if to take the viewer in an ambuscade: flesh in the greenish color of death with the scars of the frightful ordeal, an atrocious benumbed pain written across the face, the mouth extinguished in death, the body pulled up high by the tensile arch of the crossbeam and, at the same time, twisted with the torsion of the tree of the Cross, all limbs ripped out of joint, the loincloth in tatters, while a thorn of the crown pins the head fast in an excruciatingly painful position digging low and deep into the chest (Scheja, 1969, p 15).<\/p>\n

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The cross is contorted as though it shares in the agony. The crossbar is bowed under the weight of the dead body. The vertical post is twisted: it faces to Christ\u2019s right above his head and to his left at his feet. The resin of the wood mixes with the blood of the dead Christ (Bryda, 2018)<\/p>\n

The vision of Christ on the Cross as a dead body rather than as a suffering savior perhaps comes from the visions of the 14th<\/sup> Century mystic Saint Bridget:<\/p>\n

The color of death spread through his flesh, and after he breathed his last human breath, his mouth gaped open so that one could see his tongue, his teeth, and the blood in his mouth. Th e dead body sagged. His knees then contracted bending to the side. His feet were cramped and twisted about the nails of the cross as if they were on hinges (quoted in Bryda, 2018, p 13)<\/p>\n

On Christ\u2019s right side his mother Mary swoons, and is supported by the disciple John. Near them, Mary Magdalene laments the death of her teacher. The figures vary in their size as in their importance to the story.<\/p>\n

On the left side of the crucified Christ is a representation of John the Baptist. This is in no way realistic: John was from another time \u2013 he was beheaded before Christ was crucified. Yet he was the last of the prophets to announce the significance of Jesus as the son of God. His words are written in red:<\/p>\n

Illum oportet crescere me autem minui<\/em>
[He must increase, but I must decrease]. (John <\/em>3:30)<\/p>\n

At the feet of the Baptist is a lamb from whose chest blood drops into a communion chalice. When John had baptised Jesus, he had proclaimed \u201cBehold the Lamb of God!\u201d (John<\/em> 1:36) The Baptist\u2019s right arm points dramatically to the crucified Christ. The eye may move to the attendant figures but Gr\u00fcnewald insists that it return to the dead Christ.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In The Emigrants,<\/em> W. G. Sebald describes the experience of Max Ferber on viewing the Isenheim crucifixion<\/p>\n

The monstrosity of that suffering, which, emanating from the figures depicted, spread to cover the whole of Nature, only to flood back from the lifeless landscape to the humans marked by death, rose and ebbed within me like a tide. Looking at those gashed bodies, and at the witnesses of the execution, doubled up by grief like snapped reeds, I gradually understood that, beyond a certain point, pain blots out the one thing that is essential to its being experienced \u2014 consciousness \u2014 and so perhaps extinguishes itself; we know very little about this. What is certain, though, is that mental suffering is effectively without end. One may think one has reached the very limit, but there are always more torments to come. One plunges from one abyss into the next. (Sebald, 1993\/1996)<\/p>\n

Perhaps the sight of the dead Christ served to numb the pain and suffering of the patients who came to Isenheim for treatment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The fixed wings of the altarpiece provide a stark contrast to its horrifying centerpiece. On the left Saint Sebastion tranquilly suffers through his wounds. On the right Saint Anthony remains unperturbed by the demon threatening him through the window at his shoulder. Both Saints are invoked for protection against disease. Saint Sebastian actually survived the onslaught of arrows that pierced his body. Saint Anthony endured his temptations and lived to die of old age.<\/p>\n

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Radiographic examination of the Saint Sebastian has revealed that the head was painted over an earlier version. In After Nature<\/em>, Sebald interprets this in terms of the existence of two painters: Gr\u00fcnewald and Mathis Nithart:<\/p>\n

And indeed the person of Mathis Nithart
in documents of the time so flows into
the person of Gr\u00fcnewald that one
seems to have been the life,
then the death, too, of the other.
An X-ray photograph of the Sebastian
panel reveals beneath the elegiac
portrait of the saint
that same face again, the half-
profile only turned a tiny bit further
in the definitive overpainting.
Here two painters in one body
whose hurt flesh belonged to both
to the end pursued the study
of their own nature. At first
Nithart fashioned his self-portrait
from a mirror image, and Gr\u00fcnewald
with great love, precision and patience
and an interest in the skin
and hair of his companion extending
to the blue shadow of the beard
then overpainted it.
The martyrdom depicted is
the representation, to be sensed
even in the rims of the wounds,
of a male friendship wavering
between horror and loyalty.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Second View of the Altarpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

On holy days the altarpiece was opened to show a sequence of paintings depicting episodes from the life of Christ. On the left is the Annunciation. The center, where once was presented the horror of the death of Jesus now shows the wonder of his birth. Heavenly angels provide a marvelous music while the baby Jesus plays with a golden rosary on the lap of his mother Mary.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 1938, Paul Hindemith completed an opera about Mathis de Maler<\/em>. The prelude to the opera is a musical version of the concert of the angels in the Isenheim altarpiece. This was also used as the first movement of his 1935 Symphony Mathis der Maler<\/em>. Hindemith introduces three themes: a setting of an old German hymn Es sungen drei Engeln<\/em> (There sang three angels) mainly in the brass, a lively melody on the strings and a more peaceful tune on the flute. He then plays these themes against each other. The following is an illustration of the painting together with the initial introduction of the themes in the Symphony Matthis der Maler with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra led by Marin Alsop:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\nhttps:\/\/creatureandcreator.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Symphony_Md-M_-I-beginning.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

The beautiful angel in the foreground of Gr\u00fcnwald\u2019s Concert of the Angels<\/em> is playing a viola da gamba, the forerunner of the modern violoncello. Gr\u00fcnewald was clearly familiar with the instrument, which has been closely studied and reproduced. However, the direction of the bowing is strangely reversed from normal. It is difficult to understand what his means (Rasmussen 2001). Perhaps the angel is producing heavenly rather than earthly music. Even more disconcerting is the angel directly behind and above the foreground cellist. This angel is covered in iridescent green feathers and looks upset rather than entranced by the birth of Jesus. Mellinkoff (1988) proposed that this is the angel Lucifer who rebelled against God, brought about the fall of man, and is now aghast that man will be redeemed by the birth of Christ.<\/p>\n

Between the concert of the angels and the representation of Mary and the infant Jesus is a vision of a woman, with a crown of flames, surrounded by a bright yellow and red aureole (see below). No one is sure who she represents. Malinkoff (1988) suggests that she is Ecclesia<\/em> (Church), who with the birth of Christ takes over from Synagoga<\/em> as the intermediary between man and God. Others (e.g., R\u00e9au, 1920, p 187-94; Scheja, 1969, p 48) consider her to be the Eternal Mary, Queen of Heaven, the woman \u201cclothed with the sun\u201d of Revelation 12<\/em>. She is there to witness herself in her temporal form together with her infant son. \u00a0<\/p>\n

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The most striking painting in the second view of the altarpiece is the Resurrection on the right side. Christ arises from the tomb in glory, scattering and tumbling the guards:<\/p>\n

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Joris-Karl Huysmans, the first modern critics to consider the importance of Matthias Gr\u00fcnewald in Trois Primitifs<\/em> (1905, reprinted in part in Huysmans & Ruhmer, 1958), described The Resurrection<\/em>:<\/p>\n

As the sepulchre opens, some drunks in helmet and armour are knocked head over heels to lie sprawling in the foreground, sword in hand; one of them turns a somersault further off, behind the tomb, and lands on his head, while Christ surges upwards, stretching out his arms and displaying the bloody commas on his hands.
This is a strong and handsome Christ, fair-haired and brown-eyed, with nothing in common with the Goliath whom we watched decomposing a moment ago, fastened by nails to the still green wood of a gibbet. All round this soaring body are rays emanating from it which have begun to blur its outline; already the contours of the face are fluctuating, the features hazing over, the hair dissolving into a halo of melting gold. The light spreads out in immense curves ranging from bright yellow to purple, and finally shading off little by little into a pale blue which in turn merges with the dark blue of the night.
We witness here the revival of a Godhead ablaze with life: the formation of a glorified body gradually escaping from the carnal shell, which is disappearing in an apotheosis of flames of which it is itself the source and seat.
\u2026 Having dared to attempt this tour de force, Gr\u00fcnewald has carried it out with wonderful skill. In clothing the Saviour he has tried to render the changing colours of the fabrics as they are volatilized with Christ. Thus the scarlet robe turns a bright yellow, the closer it gets to the light-source of the head and neck, while the material grows lighter, becoming almost diaphanous in this river of gold. As for the white shroud which Jesus is carrying off with him, it reminds one of those Japanese fabrics which by subtle gradations change from one colour to another, for as it rises it takes on a lilac tint first of all, then becomes pure violet, and finally, like the last blue circle of the nimbus, merges into the indigo-black of the night.<\/p>\n

This is no ordinary representation of the Resurrection. Christ has not just risen from the tomb: he has also been transfigured into a vision of the Godhead. Scheja, 1988, p 40) notes how Gr\u00fcnewald has accurately depicted Dante\u2019s vision of the Trinitarian Godhead at the end of The Divine Comedy<\/em> published two centuries before his painting (Paradiso<\/em> XXXIII 115-120):<\/p>\n

Nella profonda e chiara sussistenza
de l\u2019alto lume parvermi tre giri
di tre colori e d\u2019una contenenza;<\/em><\/p>\n

e l\u2019un dall\u2019altro come iri da iri
parea reflesso, e il terzo parea foco
che quinci e quindi igualmente si spiri.<\/em><\/p>\n

[There appeared to me in the profound and bright
reality of that exalted light
three circles of three colors and one size.<\/p>\n

As rainbow by rainbow, one seemed reflected
by the second, and the third seemed a fire
that breathed as much from one as from the other.]
(translation by Louis Biancolli)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Third View of the Altarpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

As well as the statues created by Niklaus Hagenauer the third view has two lateral paintings that are the obverse of the Madonna and Child<\/em> and the Concert of Angels<\/em>. These represent The Tribulations of Saint Anthony<\/em> and The Meeting between Saint Anthony and Saint Paul<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Although often called the \u201ctemptations\u201d of Saint Anthony, the subject of Gr\u00fcnewald\u2019s painting on the right is more accurately considered his \u201ctribulations.\u201d Scheja (1969, p 28) tells the story from original biography of Saint Anthony written by Athanasius a few years after his death. When Anthony first went to the desert he was attacked by demons. Despite the pain, he refused to give up his devotion to Christ. Finally, the heavens opened, light streamed down from Christ in majesty, and the demons vanished. Anthony had passed his test and was worthy of his God. Anthony cried out the words written at the lower left of the painting (Hayum, 1989, p 79):\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ubi eras ihesu boni, ubi eras? Quare not affuisti ut sanares vulnera mea?<\/em>
[Where were you good Jesus, where were you? Why were you not there to heal my wounds?]<\/p>\n

The poor wretch at the lower left of the painting represents a patient suffering from ergotism. The distal parts of his fingers have been lost to gangrene and his skin is covered with sores (Grzybowski et al, 2021). The image serves as an intermediary between the patients in the hospital and Saint Anthony. Even the fingers of Saint Anthony\u2019s left hand are turning grey with incipient gangrene (Kluger& Brandozzi, 2023). The patients can see in the painting that their disease is the same as that of Saint Anthony. They can therefore hope that God may relieve their pain, just like he drove away the demons that tormented Saint Anthony. The following is Hindemith\u2019s musical version of Saint Anthony and the Demons: from the beginning of the 3rd<\/sup> movement of his Mathis der Maler symphony:<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/creatureandcreator.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Symphony_M-d-M_III-beginning.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

The painting on the left is as tranquil as that on the right is turbulent. \u00a0After his tribulations, Saint Anthony sought out Saint Paul, an older ascetic who had retired to the desert. Paul convinced him that the monastic life was worth pursuing. Although the meeting was reported to have taken place in a cave, Gr\u00fcnewald locates it in a peaceful wooded landscape with a gently doe acting as an intermediary between the two saints. In the background a stag waits patiently. On a high branch, a raven, accustomed to providing Paul with his daily slice of bread, gets ready to deliver two slices. The head of Saint Paul is another self-portrait of Gr\u00fcnewald (Scheja, 1969, pp 30-33; von M\u00fccke, 2011)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Afterlife of the Altarpiece<\/strong><\/p>\n

The altarpiece remained in the abbey church at Isenheim until the French Revolution (1789-1799) led to the suppression of the monasteries. In 1852, the altarpiece was moved to the new Unterlinden Museum located in Colmar, about 25 km north of Isenheim. The museum is housed in what was once a convent for the Dominican sisters, originally built in 13th<\/sup> Century.<\/p>\n

After the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), Alsace became part of Germany. The unification of Germany bought with it a desire for a distinct national culture. Philosophers conceived a Northern or Gothic tradition in art, as distinguished from Mediterranean Classical art (Rosenblum, 1975; Stieglitz, 1989). Its characteristics were a sense of the sublime, an emotional intensity, a mystical predisposition, and a deep subjectivity (or inwardness, Innerlichkeit<\/em>). Gr\u00fcnewald\u2019s paintings fitted easily into these ideas.<\/p>\n

During World War I, for safety\u2019s sake, the altarpiece was taken away from Colmar to Munich, where it was exhibited to great acclaim. The peace arrangements after the war included a requirement that the altarpiece to be returned to Colmar. Since 1919, the altarpiece has lived there in the Unterlinden Museum. The following illustration shows how it is exhibited.<\/p>\n

The visitor can go behind first section to see the paintings on the obverse side of The Crucifixion<\/em> \u2013 The Annunciation<\/em> and The Resurrection<\/em>. And then behind the The Nativity <\/em>(Angel Concert <\/em>and Madonna with the Infant Jesus<\/em>) to see The Temptation of Saint Anthony<\/em> and The Meeting between Saint Paul and Saint Anthony<\/em>. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/p>\n

Otto Dix<\/strong><\/p>\n

Otto Dix (1891-1969) studied art at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts. When war was declared in 1914, he volunteered for the army and served for the duration of the war. He took part in the Battle of the Somme in 1916, was transferred for a while to the Eastern Front, and then back to Flanders for the end of the war. He was profoundly affected by the horrors he experienced. After the war he painted images representing both his ghastly memories of trench warfare and his anger at the hypocrisy and depravity of post-war German society. He was one of the painters of Der neue Sachlichkeit<\/em> (New Objectivity) Exhibition of 1925.<\/p>\n

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Dix became a professor at the Dresden Academy in 1927. A 1929 photograph by Hugo Erfurth is shown on the right. Between 1929 and 1932 he worked on a large triptych entitled Der Krieg<\/em> (The War) based on old German triptychs especially that of Gr\u00fcnewald\u2019s Isenheim altarpiece (Bayer, 1920).<\/p>\n

The left wing of the triptych, entitled Aufmarsch<\/em> (Deployment), depicts the soldiers leaving for the frontline early in the morning before the mists have cleared.<\/p>\n

The right wing, entitled Nachtlicher Ruckzug <\/em>(Nightly Retreat) shows a soldier (a self-portrait of the artist) trying to bring a wounded colleague back to safety behind the frontlines.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The central section, Der Krieg<\/em>, takes the place of the Crucifixion in a medieval altar. Instead of Christ on the cross<\/p>\n

a rotting corpse has been hurled onto iron girders in similar fashion. His eye sockets have already become black holes, the teeth are bared, with what remains of his uniform hanging in tatters. (Bayer 1920)<\/p>\n

The corpse points to another dead body on the right. This is clearly an illusion to Gr\u00fcnewald\u2019s Isenheim altarpiece wherein John the Baptist points dramatically to the crucified Christ. The body to which the finger points is upside down and riddled with bullet holes in much the same way as Gr\u00fcnewald\u2019s Christ was covered in sores. The background to these horrors is a landscape completely destroyed by artillery.<\/p>\n

The predella of Dix\u2019s triptych shows several soldiers lying down under what might be a camouflage screen. It is unclear whether they are dead or sleeping. If the latter there is a clockwise circular logic to the triptych: the exhausted soldiers will wake up, advance to the front again, engage in the murderous work of war, and then retreat, wounded and exhausted to sleep another night.<\/p>\n

Dix\u2019s description of the war was loathed by the Nazi government, who wished to portray war as an occasion for heroism rather than a field of horror. In 1933 Dix was dismissed from his position at the Dresden Academy. Many of his paintings were removed from galleries and destroyed. Some were included in the Exhibition of Degenerate Art in 1937. Dix saved the triptych, took it apart, and stored it in a friend\u2019s farmhouse until after the war. The Galerie der Neue Meister<\/em> (Gallery of Modern Masters) in Dresden purchased the painting in 1968.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Paul Hindemith<\/strong><\/p>\n

Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) studied music at Dr. Hoch’s Konservatorium in Frankfurt and joined the Frankfurt Symphony Orchestra after graduation. He served in the German army on the frontlines in Alsace during the last year of the war.<\/p>\n

After the war, he founded the Amar Quartet, playing the viola, and began to compose. During the 1930s he worked on his Opera Mathis der Maler<\/em>, based on the life of Matthias Gr\u00fcnewald. As he was writing this music, he used some of the orchestral interludes in the opera to make his Symphony Mathis der Maler<\/em> which was published in 1935.\u00a0 The opera was not completed until 1938. Because the Nazis considered his music degenerate, Hindemith was unable to get the opera performed in Germany. He emigrated to Switzerland in 1938 and then to the United States in 1940.<\/p>\n

As well as the modernity of the music, the subject matter of the opera was anathema to the Nazi powers (Bruhm, 1998, 2002; Paret, 2008; Watkins, 2002; Fuller, 1997). It revealed the horrors of war: the summary executions, the raping and pillaging. One of the scenes concerned the burning of Lutheran books as ordered by the Catholic Church. This made obvious reference to the Nazi book burnings which had begun in the early 1930s.<\/p>\n

The opera has been performed only rarely. A 1977 production starred Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as Mathis. A striking recent production in Vienna that was captured on DVD by Naxos in 2012.<\/p>\n

The opera is concerned with the life of Matthias Gr\u00fcnewald after he completes the Isenheim altarpiece. Hindemith imagines that Mathis leaves the service of Albrecht von Brandenburg and joins the rebellion of the peasants. Throughout these terrible times, images from the altarpiece (and Hindemith\u2019s musical versions thereof) return to comfort or to haunt the painter. During the rebellion, he takes care of Regina, a young woman whose father, one of the leaders of the rebellion, was cruelly executed before her eyes. The beginning of the 6th<\/sup> scene of the opera finds them fleeing from the mercenaries through the forest of the Odenwald southeast of Frankfurt, Mathis tries to comfort the grieving Regina with the story of the Concert of Angels<\/em> who played music at the nativity of Jesus. The following is part of the aria, as sung by Wolfgang Koch as Mathis and Katherina Tretyakova as Regina:\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Alte M\u00e4rchen woben
Uns fromme Bilder, die ein Widerscheinen
Des H\u00f6heren sind. Ihr Sinn ist dir
Fern, du kannst ihn nur erahnen.
Und frommer noch reden
Zu uns die T\u00f6ne, wenn Musik, in Einfalt hier
Geboren, die Spur himmlischer Herkunft tr\u00e4gt.
Sieh, wie eine Schar von Engeln ewige Bahnen
In irdischen Wegen abwandelt. Wie sp\u00fcrt man jeden
Versenkt in sein mildes Amt. Der eine geigt
Mit wundersam gesperrtem Arm, den Bogen w\u00e4gt
Er zart, damit nicht eines wenigen Schattens Rauheit
Den linden Lauf tr\u00fcbe. Ein andrer streicht
Gehobnen Blicks aus Saiten seine Freude.
Verhaftet scheint der dritte dem fernen Gel\u00e4ute
Seiner Seele und achtet leicht des Spiels.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Wie bereit
Er ist, zugleich zu h\u00f6ren und zu dienen.<\/p>\n

REGINA
Es sungen drei Engel ein s\u00fcssen Gesang,
Der weit in den hohen Himmel erklang.<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/creatureandcreator.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Mathis-der-Maler-Scene-6-Alte-Marchen.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

The following is a translation<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Old fairy tales wove
Pious images for us that are a reflection
Of something higher. Their meaning is so
Far from you, that you can only guess.
And music speaks even more piously
When, born here in simplicity,
It brings a breath of heaven.
See how a host of angels eternally follow
Our earthly paths. How one feels each one
Is immersed in their gentle office. One plays the violin
With a wondrously bared arm, lightly bowing
Lest any roughness darken
Cloud the gentle melody. Another,
With an uplifted gaze, strokes joy from the strings.
The third seems captivated by the distant chiming
of his soul and hardly attends to the music.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 How ready
he is to listen and serve at the same time.<\/p>\n

REGINA
Three angels sang a sweet song
That resounded far into the heavens.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Comfort of Images<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hindemith\u2019s Mathis comforts the grieving Regina by describing to her his painting of the Concert of Angels<\/em>. The world is difficult to understand. The suffering that occurs is often unjustified. So we tell ourselves stories \u2013 we weave together fairy tales \u2013 to make sense of the world. We can represent these stories in paintings and in music.<\/p>\n

The story that Gr\u00fcnewald unfolds in the Isenheim altarpiece is the myth of a Son of God who suffered and died so that we may be redeemed and live forever. And the life of Saint Anthony who lived in holiness so that our illness can be cured.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And even if these are only stories, the comfort they provide is real.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n

Andersson, C. (2003). Gr\u00fcnewald, Matthias [Gothart Nithart, Mathis; Gothardt-Neithardt, Matthis]. Grove Art Online<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Bayer, M. (2020).\u00a0 Der Krieg: Otto Dix\u2019s War Triptych, memory, and the perception of the First World War. In Hutchison, M., & Trout, S. (Eds.). Portraits of Remembrance<\/em>. (pp 250-269) University of Alabama.<\/p>\n

Bruhn, S. (1998). The temptation of Paul Hindemith: Mathis der Maler as a spiritual testimony<\/em>. Pendragon. (difficult to find; preview in Google Books<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Bruhn, S, (2002). Wordless songs of love, glory, and resurrection: musical emblems of the holy in Hindemith\u2019s saints. In Voicing the ineffable: musical representations of religious experience<\/em>. (pp 157-188). Pendragon.<\/p>\n

Bryda, G. C. (2018). The exuding wood of the cross at Isenheim. Art Bulletin, 100<\/em>(2), 6\u201336.<\/p>\n

Fuller, M. (1997). Hindemith\u2019s Mathis der Maler: A parable for our times. New Blackfriars<\/em>, 78<\/em>(916), 260\u2013267.<\/p>\n

Grzybowski, A., Pawlikowska-\u0141ag\u00f3d, K., & Polak, A. (2021). Ergotism and Saint Anthony\u2019s fire. Clinics in Dermatology<\/em>, 39<\/em>(6), 1088\u20131094.<\/p>\n

Harrisville, R. A. (2004). Encounter with Grunewald. Currents in Theology and Mission<\/em>, 31<\/em>(1), 5-14.<\/p>\n

Hayum, A. (1989). The Isenheim altarpiece: God\u2019s medicine and the painter\u2019s vision<\/em>. Princeton University Press.<\/p>\n

Huysmans, J.-K. & Ruhmer, E. (1958). Gr\u00fcnewald: the paintings<\/em>. Phaidon Press.<\/p>\n

Kluger, N., & Brandozzi, G. (2023). Digital necrosis in the Isenheim altarpiece (1512\u20131516). Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology<\/em>, 37<\/em>(7), 1265\u20131267.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mayr, V. (2003). Hagenauer [von Hagnow; Hagnower], Nikolaus [Niclas]. Grove Art Online<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mellinkoff, R. (1988). The devil at Isenheim: reflections of popular belief in Gr\u00fcnewald\u2019s altarpiece<\/em>. University of California Press.<\/p>\n

Paret, P. (2008). Beyond Music: Hindemith\u2019s Opera Mathis der Maler as political document. Historically Speaking<\/em>, 9<\/em>(5), 6\u20139.<\/p>\n

Rasmussen, M. (2001). Viols, violists and Venus in Grunewald\u2019s Isenheim Altar. Early Music<\/em>, 29<\/em>(1), 60\u201374.<\/p>\n

R\u00e9au, L. (1920). Mathias Gr\u00fcnewald et le retable de Colmar.<\/em> Berger-Levrault. (Available at archive.org<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Rosenblum, R. (1975). Modern painting and the northern romantic tradition: Friedrich to Rothko<\/em>. Harper & Row.<\/p>\n

Scheja, G. (1969). The Isenheim Altarpiece<\/em>. H.N. Abrams.<\/p>\n

Schloss, M. F. (1963) Gr\u00fcnewald and the Chicago portrait. Art Journal<\/em>, 23(1), 10-16.<\/p>\n

Sebald, W. G. (1988). Nach der Natur<\/em>. Franz Greno, Nordlingen,<\/p>\n

Sebald, W. G. (1988, translated by Hamburger, M. 2002). After nature<\/em>. Hamish Hamilton.<\/p>\n

Sebald, W. G. (1993, translated by Hulse, M., 1996). The emigrants<\/em>. Harvill.<\/p>\n

Sieger, J. (accessed 2025). Der Isenheimer Altarund seine Botschaft<\/a> [The Isenheimer Altarpiece and its Message] (Google provides a reasonable translation)<\/p>\n

Stieglitz, A. (1989). The reproduction of agony: toward a reception-history of Gr\u00fcnewald\u2019s Isenheim Altar after the First World War. Oxford Art Journal<\/em>, 12<\/em>(2), 87\u2013103.<\/p>\n

Snyder, J. (1985). Northern Renaissance art: painting, sculpture, the graphic arts from 1350 to 1575<\/em>. Prentice-Hall.<\/p>\n

von M\u00fccke, D. (2011). History and the work of art in Sebald\u2019s After Nature. <\/em>Nonsite<\/em><\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n

Watkins, G. (2002). Prophecies and Alarms. In Proof through the Night<\/em> (pp. 403-416). University of California Press.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Very little is known about the life of Matthias Gr\u00fcnewald, a painter (German Maler) who worked in the early decades of the 16th Century in Germany. He is renowned for the pictures he created between 1512 and 1516 for the altarpiece of the Monastery of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":277,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,442,4,6,9,8],"tags":[958,964,967,960,959,32,955,963,957,384,961,965,962,966,956,170],"class_list":["post-6646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art","category-history","category-medicine","category-music","category-painting","category-religion","category-sculpture","tag-albrecht-von-brandenburg","tag-ergotism","tag-german-peasants-war","tag-hospital-brothers-of-saint-anthony","tag-isenheim","tag-martin-luther","tag-matthias-grunewald","tag-nicklaus-hagenauer","tag-otto-dix","tag-paul-hindemith","tag-saint-anthony-the-great","tag-saint-anthonys-fire","tag-saint-paul","tag-unterlinden-museum","tag-w-g-sebald","tag-world-war-i"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/creatureandcreator.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/creatureandcreator.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/creatureandcreator.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creatureandcreator.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creatureandcreator.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6646"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/creatureandcreator.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6672,"href":"https:\/\/creatureandcreator.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6646\/revisions\/6672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creatureandcreator.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/creatureandcreator.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creatureandcreator.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/creatureandcreator.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}