ISENHEIM ALTARPIECE

Background

Around 1512–1516, Grünewald painted his famous altarpiece for the chapel of the Antonite monastery in Isenheim, a village about 15 miles south of Colmar. This work was commissioned by Guy Guers, who served as preceptor of the Antonite order from 1490 to 1516. The sculpted portion was executed by Nicolas de Haguenau (around 1515). The monks of this order, which was official founded in 1092, ministered to victims of Saint Anthony’s fire, a disfiguring disease now called ergotism caused by the ingestion of rye infected with ergot, a fungus that grows parasitically on the grain. Little by little, the Isenheim hospice, which was founded around 1300, acquired a rich collection of works of art that it commissioned and financed, one of which was this altarpiece, dedicated to Saint Anthony and intended for the chapel choir of the hospice, where it was held until the Revolution. In 1792, the altarpiece was transferred to the local branch of the French national library for safekeeping. Finally, in 1852 it was moved to the chapel of the former Unterlinden convent in Colmar, becoming the principal treasure of the museum being established at that time and has never ceased to captivate and enthrall visitors since.