NORTHERN RENAISSANCE ART

Northern Renaissance Art

Northern Renaissance Art

Introduction

Grunewald's fame, like that of El Greco, has developed almost entirely within our own century. His main work, the Isenheim Altarpiece, is unique in the Northern art of his time in its ability to overwhelm us with something like the power of the Sistine Ceiling. Long believed to be by Durer, it was painted between 1509/10 and 1515 for the monastery church of the Order of St. Anthony at Isenheim, in Alsace, and is now in the museum of the nearby town of Colmar (Landau, 1996).

Discussion

This extraordinary altarpiece is a carved shrine with two sets ot movable wings, which give ...