Christ on the Cross: A Violent Image as an Act of Commiseration

LOS ANGELES TIMES
By Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times Art Critic

Isenheim Altarpiece (1512-1516)by Matthias Grünewald

FRANCE---No image I know in the history of Western painting is more brutal than the crucifixion scene in the Isenheim Altarpiece. Its violence would make Quentin Tarantino blush. When German Renaissance artist Matthias Grünewald first set brush to limewood panel to paint the mammoth altarpiece around 1512, however, his intention was not to gross out viewers. As a painting made for a hospital, though, establishing a powerful identification with the hideous suffering and death of Christ was essential to the artist's task. Grünewald gave it all he had. [link]