The Isenheim Altarpiece: God's Medicine and the Painter's Vision (Princeton Essays on the Arts)

Andrée Hayum approaches Matthias Grünewald's Isenheim Altarpiece, now at the Musée d'Unterlinden in Colmar, as a structural and iconographic entity and restores it to its broader cultural context in the early sixteenth century. She interprets the altarpiece in terms of its hospital context, then explores how this polyptych functions as a system of communication, in relation to contemporary sermons and in response to an emerging print culture. The meaning and motivation behind the direct visual appeal of the Isenheim panels are considered within the liturgy and the sacramental economy. Frontmatter List of Illustrations (page viii) Preface (page xv) Introduction (page 3) I Meaning and Function: The Hospital Context (page 13) II Painting and Presence: A Catholic Monument at the Threshold of the Reformation (page 53) III Fides ex auditu: John the Baptist, Baptism, and Judgment (page 89) IV Afterlife of a Monument (page 118) Notes (page 151) Index (page 195) Andrée Hayum. The Altarpiece Is Installed In The Musée D'unterlinden, Colmar, France. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 151-194) And Index. Looks at the history of the altarpiece, discusses its relationship to its historical period, and describes its influence on artists and writers