around 1475/1480 -1528 · Upper Rhine and German Renaissance

Upset bodies, supernatural colors and visionary light give Matthias Grünewald an expressive power without equivalent in the German Renaissance.

Matthias Grünewald, today identified with Mathis Gothart Nithart, was born around 1475 -1480 and died in 1528. He worked in the Rhine and Main regions, serving religious and princely sponsors, while also exercising technical functions linked to the works hydraulics and construction sites. His masterpiece is the Issenheim altarpiece, painted between 1512 and 1516 for the Antonine hospital commandery near Colmar, with sculptures by Niclaus de Haguenau. The Unterlinden Museum recalls that the Antonines treated the victims of the evil of the ardent; the Crucifixion therefore presents a Christ whose skin, wounds and twisted limbs could reflect the suffering of the sick. When the shutters open, the Annunciation, the Concert of Angels, the Nativity and especially the Resurrection instead deploy a colorful light which transforms the body into an apparition. The Temptation of Saint Anthony pushes the imagination towards an assault of monsters, illnesses and chaos, while the works of Tauberbischofsheim concentrate the Passion in heavy bodies and extreme gestures. Grünewald does not seek classical balance: he distorts, intensifies and colors in order to make pain, compassion and revelation physically perceptible. Grünewald does not seek classical balance: he distorts, intensifies and colors in order to make pain, compassion and revelation physically perceptible. Grünewald does not seek classical balance: he distorts, intensifies and colors in order to make pain, compassion and revelation physically perceptible. Grünewald does not seek classical balance: he distorts, intensifies and colors in order to make pain, compassion and revelation physically perceptible. Grünewald does not seek classical balance: he distorts, intensifies and colors in order to make pain, compassion and revelation physically perceptible. Grünewald does not seek classical balance: he distorts, intensifies and colors in order to make pain, compassion and revelation physically perceptible. Grünewald does not seek classical balance: he distorts, intensifies and colors in order to make pain, compassion and revelation physically perceptible. Grünewald does remains considerable. The "Matthias Grünewald" selection notably compares Temptation of Saint Anthony and Crucifixion. His reading favors drawing.

Grünewald paints faith on a body scale: the flesh is torn in the Crucifixion, then the color itself becomes light in the Resurrection.