The Crucifixion by Matthias Grunewald

* The Isenheim Altar. Matthias Grunewald. 1512. Unterlinden Museum in Colmar, Alsace. Originally in the chapel of the hospital for incurable diseases in the monastery of Saint Anthony. The brilliant altar is one of the most complex structures ever created in western religious art. It has two sets of painted folding wings, which, when opened, reveal three carved wooden and gilded statues of saints. There are also two side panels and a predella. The Crucifixion is horrifying. Christ looks not just beaten and tortured but diseased. In the Resurrection He is an unearthly radiant white. At the lower left of the Resurrection sits a naked man whose body is covered with running sores. He is one of the patients in the hospital, afflicted with syphilis, who gazes upon the pure white Christ knowing that in death he will become radiant and also cured. Being cured of human diseases through a devotion of the suffering Christ is the fundamental story of this great work of art.