The Isenheim Altarpiece was executed for the hospital chapel of St Anthony's monastery in Isenheim in Alsace, which explains the presence of the plague saint, St Sebastian, and the patrons of the more austere and solitary forms of monasticism, St Antony Abbot and St Paul the Hermit.

место:
часовня
hospital chapel

композиция:
Св. Антоний Отшельник, левая панель
St Antony the Hermit
оформление:
750х2320.
567*1500
True Color
135 Kb
Распятие с предстоящими, центральная панель
Crucifixion with attendants, the central panel

композиция:
The first, with the wings closed, is a Crucifixion showing a harrowingly detailed, twisted, and bloody figure of Christ on the cross in the center flanked, on the left, by the mourning Virgin being comforted by John the Apostle, and Mary Magdalene kneeling with hands clasped in prayer, and, on the right, by a standing John the Baptist pointing to the dying Saviour.
At the feet of the Baptist is a lamb holding a cross, symbol of the "Lamb of God" slaughtered for man's sins.
Art for Grunewald did not consist in the search for the hidden laws of beauty - for him it could have only one aim, the aim of all religious art in the Middle Ages - that of providing a sermon in pictures, of proclaiming the sacred truths as taught by the Church.
The central panel of the Isenheim altarpiece shows that he sacrificed all other considerations to this one overriding aim.
Of beauty, as the Italian artists saw it, there is none in the stark and cruel picture of the crucified Saviour.
Like a preacher at Passiontide, Grunewald left nothing undone to bring home to us the horrors of this scene of suffering:
Christ's dying body is distorted by the torture of the cross; the thorns of the scourges stick in the festering wounds which cover the whole figure.
The dark red blood forms a glaring contrast to the sickly green of the flesh. By His features and the impressive gesture of His hands, the Man of Sorrows speaks to us of the meaning of His Calvary.

His suffering is reflected in the traditional group of Mary, in the garb of a widow, fainting in the arms of St John the Evangelist, to whose care the Lord has commended her, and in the smaller figure of St Mary Magdalene with her vessel of ointments, wringing her hands in sorrow.

On the other side of the Cross, there stands the powerful figure of St John the Baptist with the ancient symbol of the lamb carrying the cross and pouring out its blood into the chalice of the Holy Communion.
With a stern and commanding gesture he points towards the Saviour, and over him are written the words that he speaks: "Illum oportet crescere, me autem minuere" ('He must increase, but I must decrease')[John 3:30].

There is little doubt that the artist wanted the beholder of the altar to meditate on these words, which he emphasized so strongly by the pointing hand of St John the Baptist.

Perhaps he even wanted us to see how Christ must grow and we diminish.
For in this picture, in which reality seems to be depicted in all its unmitigated horror, there is one unreal and fantastic trait: the figures differ greatly in size.
We need only compare the hands of St Mary Magdalene under the Cross with those of Christ to become fully aware of the astonishing difference in their dimensions.
It is clear that in these matters Grunewald rejected the rules of modern art as it had developed since the Renaissance, and that he deliberately returned to the principles of medieval and primitive painters, who varied the size of their figures according to their importance in the picture.
Just as he had sacrificed the pleasing kind of beauty for the sake of the spiritual lesson of the altar, he also disregarded the new demand for correct proportions, since this helped him to express the mystic truth of the words of St John.
оформление:
3070х2690.
предмет с изображением:

марка почтовая
postage stamp

файл
kfki.hu

sai.msu.su

без обрамления

ibiblio.org

aug.edu

Св. Севастьян, правая панель
St Sebastian
оформление:
765х2320.
предмет с изображением:

файл
kfki.hu
grunew11

обрамление лучше смотреть здесь

38 Kb

композиция:
Благовещение, слева
Annunciation
композиция:
Облечённый могуществом ангел почти насильно врывается в тихие, пронизанные светом девичьи покои.
оформление:
1410х2690.
предмет с изображением:
файл
kfki.hu
Богородица и Младенец с музицирующими ангелами, центр
Angel Concert for Virgin and Child
история:
This panel, also known as "Concert of Angels and Mary in Glory", is the central panel of the second view of the Isenheim Altarpiece.
In the iconography relating to Mary, the concert of angels can accompany the Glorification as well as the Nativity.
This altarpiece inspired Paul Hindemith, one of the most significant German composers of the 20th century, to create his opera and symphony entitled "Mathis the Painter".
композиция:
The musician angels are crowded into the Gothic chapel which fills the left half of the painting.
In fact only three of them have instruments in their hands, and only one of them stands out, a blond-haired angel dressed in pale violet robe kneeling and playing the viola da gamba.
His exalted expression and his beautiful instrument, however, fill the entire picture with music.
The peculiar position of his hand, the way he holds the bow at the wrong end, is certainly not in accordance with contemporary practice; it is merely a compositional solution employed by the master.
Behind him we can see one of his mates playing the viola da braccio, and on the left, behind the column, another bird-like, feather-covered angel who also plays the viola da gamba.
Grunewald no longer makes the distinction between the nine orders of angels, but refers to their former hierarchy by depicting them as different.

A long-haired female figure, wearing a crown and surrounded by a halo, appears in the doorway of the chapel. She is perhaps a female saint or, according to more recent interpretations, Mary herself before giving birth.

The crystal jug on the steps symbolizes her, and the tub and towel refer to the bath to be given the newborn.

Mary, lovingly embracing her child, occupies the right half of the painting.

She is flooded with heavenly light originating from God the Father, in which angels flutter around. In the rear on the right we can see the two angels bearing the news to the shepherds.
The garden in which Mary sits is a walled-in "hortus conclusus" (enclosed garden) with closed gates. The plants - the rose and the Tree of the Knowledge, the fig tree - also symbolizes Mary.
оформление:
3040х2650.
предмет с изображением:
иллюстрация [1138 с. 56 - 57]

файл
kfki.hu
Воскресение, справа
Resurrection
оформление:
1410х2690.
предмет с изображением:

иллюстрация
[185 c. 708] - фрагмент
файл
http://sai.msu.su/cjackson/grunewal/p-grunewa8.htm

без обрамления
Оплакивание, пределла
Lamentation
оформление:
3410х760.
предмет с изображением:
файл
kfki.hu
предмет с изображением:

файл
www.kfki.hu/~arthp/art/g/grunewal/isenheim/2view4lr.jpg
композиция:
Благовещение и Воскресение
Annunciation and Resurrection
kfki.hu
grunew15

обрамление лучше смотреть здесь

композиция:
Свв. Павел и Антоний в пустыне, левая створка, внешняя сторона
SS Paul and Antony in the desert
композиция:
Visit of St Antony to St Paul
оформление:
1410х2650.
Искушение св. Антония, правая створка, внешняя сторона
Temptation of St Antony

оформление:
1410х2650.
предмет с изображением:

файл
http://sai.msu.su/cjackson/grunewal/p-grunewa6.htm

без обрамления

оформление:
The innermost panels flanks a carved wooden shrine to St Anthony.
(1410 + 1410)х2650.
предмет с изображением:
файл
kfki.hu

The Crucifixion is sombre and livid; inside, all is a magic glory of brilliant colour and light, and the final scenes of the Desert Saints are again lurid and eerie, with, in the Temptation, the kind of devil-haunted imagery that permeated Bosch's visions of sin.