Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Isenheim Altarpiece

  • The Isenheim Altarpiece and ‘homeopathic’ hospital art

    Katrina Genuis Canada   Figure 1: Isenheim Altarpiece, First View. Matthias Grünewald, 1512-1516. Unterlindin Museum, Colmar, France. Source. Art found in hospitals generally has the aim of comforting the viewer. Presumably, ill patients or exhausted on-call physicians who amble past pastoral countryside scenes or watercolour flowers are reminded that despite their current difficultly there is…

  • The plague of ergotism and the grace of God

    Wilson EngelGilbert, Arizona, United States Perhaps the best known and least forgettable of all Renaissance art works depicting the graphic effects of disease is Matthias Grünewald’s Isenheim Altarpiece (1506–1515), now in the Musée d’Unterlinden, Colmar.1 On the closed center portion of the altarpiece, is Grünewald’s famous portrayal of the Crucifixion in which the intensely human…

  • Bread of life and death

    Juliet Hubbell Littleton, Colorado, United States Isenheim Altarpiece, 1512–1516 Matthias Grünewald Oil on panel Musée d’Unterlinden, Colmar, France One of the world’s greatest masterpieces is often and mysteriously excluded from the common pilgrimages educated tourists make in their travels. While crowds will mill about the Mona Lisa in Paris or endure hours of air travel and…