06/03/2026
Originally painted for a hospital that treated patients with ‘Saint Anthony’s Fire’, a disease that caused blistering gangrene and hallucination, the Isenheim Altarpiece continued to heal a different trauma in the 20th century. From Joris-Karl Hausman’s ‘rediscovery’ of Grünewald around 1900 to W.G. Sebald’s meditations more recently, few artists have been so tied to literature.
But despair is only one half of the story. The trippy flamboyance of the layer beneath, with the Concert of Angles and Nativity, flanked by a sultry Virgin Annunciate and the risen Christ in all his glory, can be even more moving. For my young child that was certainly the case. He wrote in his notebook: ‘the best part is the people visiting, including the children with their strawberry halos and Mary alight with happiness, which she spreads and makes everything and everyone rainbow.’