Matthias Grünewald at the Unterlinden Museum, Colmar, France

 

Continuity in Architecture recommend an exhibition that celebrates the work of the 16^th century artist, Matthias Grünewald. The centrepiece is the Isenheim Altarpiece, a work of art that is still both startling and terrifying almost 500 years after its creation.

JackieWullschlager in the FT describes it: “Matthias Grünewald’s harrowing “Crucifixion” depicts the gigantic, swollen, blotched body of Christ, head sagging, limbs stiff as a corpse, flesh discoloured and encrusted with thorns and scars. No chiselled beauty or classical harmonies here: although Grünewald’s realistic, earthy figures glow with the contemplative inwardness of northern Renaissance art from Van Eyke to Rembrandt, his Christ has the stark, literal aesthetic of the late Middle Ages.”

 The exhibition continues at the Unterlinden Museum in Colmar, France until March 2nd.