Isenheim Altarpiece

Matthias Grunewald ignored Renaissance classicism to continue the expressive and intense style of late medieval Central European art into the 16th century. This is no sanitised version of the Crucifixion. The tortured body of Christ conveys the pain and agony of a man close to death, nailed to the cross with his wounds bleeding from thorns and beatings. The disfigured, twisted body, with hands outstretched to the heavens, expressively lay bare the gruesome reality of Christ's unimaginable suffering. Very medieval way of representing Christ.