Retrograde and The Temptation of St. Anthony

David DePriest
Matthias Grünewald, The Visit of St Anthony to St Paul and Temptation of St Anthony, 1515



One of the most interesting features of the Northern Renaissance was its push towards permutation, not only of different artistic styles but also of different attitudes. Religious paintings became increasingly secular in aim and focus, while more secular works took on a transcendental/religious quality. Of the works that exemplify this shift, Grünewald's The Visit of St. Anthony and Temptation of St. Anthony shows just how gorgeous this permutation can be.

The painting itself is religious almost to a fault. The two scenes depicted show St. Anthony in various phases of his life, showcasing not only his permanence, but also his challenges as he attempted to bring his fiery rhetoric to non-believers. This sentiment, of austerity and boldness, is contrasted brilliantly by the languid and overgrown.

Enter James Blake.

James Blake's 2012 album Overgrown is largely an album of unrequited romances and failed ambitions. Nowhere on the album is that stated more boldly than the title track where Blake states, "I don't want to be a star/but a stone on the shore/a lone doorframe in a wall when everything's overgrown." Blake's production matches his sentiment, blending modern electronic beat programming and bass with a saturated piano line and elegiac pop strings. This idea of permanence, and having a message that lasts beyond your lifetime and into infinity, is at the root of St. Anthony's portrayal here.

Grünewald's presentation here is quite telling--not only are the colors somewhat darkened and disconnected, but the characters also exhibit a disconnection from their location in time. St. Paul, who lived way before St. Anthony, casually has a conversation with Anthony as if his anachronistic placement is nothing more than a slight misstep. The temptation has a similarly timeless quality, its monsters taken straight from a Bosch or Dali painting. All of this alludes to a divorce from notions of time and impermanence that Blake captures perfectly in "Overgrown."

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Isenheim Altarpiece

Isenheim Altarpiece

Matthias Grunewald, Isenheim Altarpiece, 1512-1514

The Isenheim Altarpiece was created by Matthias Grünewald for the hospital of Saint Anthony's Monastery in Isenheim. The altarpiece when closed shows a version of the crucifixion unlike most we have seen. The grotesque detail of Christ's body, his torn flesh, distortion, and blood, is horrific and captivating.This altarpiece helped the patients have a sense of community and gave them a feeling that they were all suffering together in relation to Christ's suffering on the cross. This Crucifixion was shown on weekdays and the opened altarpiece on Sundays.

 The reality of this painting is seen in the deep emotion Grünewald's paints in his figures. Mary Magdalene is falling to her knees in agony, the Virgin, held by St. John the Evangelist is overwhelmed with sorrow. The ominous sky and deep umber tones in the rocks in contrast to the light cast upon Christ's body also add to the somber mood.



When opened the mood is suddenly uplifted with the joyousness of the resurrection of Christ. Warm, rich colors and bright lighting contrast from the closed altarpiece. It is divided in three panels. Annunciation, Angelic Concert Nativity, and Resurrection. On the left in Annunciation, Mary is told of her destiny of bearing the savior Jesus Christ. Her facial expression is a mix of sadness and understanding. The nativity scene in the middle panel shows the Madonna and child sitting on the tabernacle steps welcoming salvation to the world. Finally, the third panel depicts Jesus resurrected from the dead, rising in front of a glorious sun, triumphant, and bringing redemption to mankind.

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The Sickness Unto Death Pt. VI: Isenheim Altarpiece

Aaron Dupuis
The Sickness Unto Death 
A Musically Guided Exploration of Artist's Struggle with Mortality
Curated by Aaron Dupuis
Matthias Grünewald, Isenheim Altarpiece, 1512

"Every bitter night into an empty room I plead my caseEvery night I pray that in the morning when I wake
I'll be in a familiar place and find that I'm recovered and I'm sane
and I'll remember everything
I'll remember what I was like before that bug bit me"
"The Sickness Unto Death," Typhoon 

Of all of the paintings of the crucifixion, this one hits me the hardest. Critics can talk all they want about the strides that Caravaggio made in making Christ accessible to the public at large. I won't disagree with them. However, this is the only work I have ever seen that fully reduces Christ to a human form. There is no grace. There is no dignity. There is no beauty. Instead Grünewald gives us a hanging corpse, skinny and ragged. He gives us ugliness. The true ugliness of death.

Though this particular panel depicts no sense of holiness - not even the faint halo of Mantegna's Lamentation over the Dead Christ - the other panels hidden from view in the above photo depict a scene of glorious resurrection and ascension into the blinding lights of heaven. By portraying Christ's as a deformed corpse and later as a risen angel, Grünewald conquers the fear of death, not for his own sake, but for the sake of the wretched masses who would have seen the altarpiece in the Monastery of St. Anthony. The Monastery, you see, served primarily as a hospital, and served the lepers and cripples of Isenheim, helping to alleviate their suffering and make their final days on earth as comfortable as possible.

And so the Isenheim Altarpiece's ugliness is only surface level. Beneath the grime and gore lies the beauty of compassion and human empathy. And there too lies the belief that our time on earth is what we should dread most. Death is nothing at all.

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Isenheim Altarpiece: Temptation of St. Anthony and Paul and Anthony

1512-1515

Matthias Grunewald, Isenheim Altarpiece: Temptation of St. Anthony and Paul and Anthony, 1512-15
I am in a quandary, faithful reader. Matthias Grunewald’s Temptation of St. Anthony poses a frightening question I cannot face alone. Which of the demon’s beating St. Anthony frightens you the most? For myself, I have narrowed it down to two formidable contenders. In one corner of the ring, we have Demonic Bird with a Stick (see bottom left hand corner of Temptation). At first, this odd caricature made me laugh solely because of how ridiculous the thing looks. It reminds me of a chemically-altered chick whose feet are way too long… but then I noticed his stick. If one gets out their protractor and traces the stick’s trajectory they will be horrified when they reach Demonic Bird’s targets. Guys in the room please do not flinch as I dub the stick the unholy castrator. St. Anthony, be warned this Bird plays dirty. 
Detail: The Lovecraftian Armadillo 
In the second corner of the ring, I introduce the Lovecraftian Armadillo (see bottom middle of Temptation). This brutal beast may be small, but my God it’s hideous. I call it Lovecraftian because it reminds me of something that would crawl out of H.P. Lovecraft’s nightmares in order to feed its insatiable hunger for children. The Armadillo’s beak also gives him the ability to tear off St. Anthony’s fingers in order to get at the prayer beads. The beast appears to be ripping the faith from the Saint’s hands. 

You have your contenders: Demonic Bird with a Stick vs. Lovecraftian Armadillo. Who will win in this fight of the century? But let the spectators take a good look at the arena before they decide. Temptation is not a standalone piece. Paul and Anthony coexists alongside Temptation, which makes sense since the two paintings’ staging mimic each other. Notice the curve flowing down the demon’s arm and into Anthony’s head. This curve can also be found along the tree, down through Anthony and between the two saints in Paul and Anthony. This staging brings the focus onto Anthony (and Paul) in both paintings, though Grunewald uses his eerily similar staging in two very different ways. In Temptation, the curve and the downward force of the demons stomping on Anthony traps the saint. Paul and Anthony seems more free, while also being enclosed by the two rocks in the background. These rocks bending towards each other symbolize the two saints meeting, making them equivalent to two forces of nature. Also, the space behind the curve and immediately in front of the curve is hollow. Nothing traps the two saints in the painting. They possess this enclosed, sacred place where they can freely worship God.

But all this analytical, theological, and art historian jibber jabber talk bores me. What we all really want to know is who would in a fight, Demon Bird with a Stick or Lovecraftian Armadillo? After much thought on the subject, I cast my vote with the Lovecraftian Armadillo solely because the Demon Bird’s stick has no chance of breaking the Armadillo’s shell.
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The Crucifixion

Crucifixion
Matthias Grünewald, The Crucifixion, 1511-16
The disease is called “St. Anthony’s Fire,” or more commonly known now as ergotism - a fungus one gets from ingesting rye bread causes the gruesome flesh wounds, seizures, and many other painful symptoms. That’s what’s happening to Jesus skin at the moment, it was not usually so green and well gross. The Isenheim Altarpiece, painted by Matthias Grünewald, was going to a monastery in Alsace, France that treated the horrific disease. Apparently if Jesus had it in the painting, it would be more bearable for the patients who were suffering and forced to look at it. Medieval thinking, what can you do?

The painting is not supposed to express Grünewald’s ideas as a painter or thoughts on life, rather teach the illiterate poor about their God and his sacrifice. The painting as a whole screams death, dying, betrayal, and sacrifice. The cross looks thrown together at the last minute, and the beams look raw and crude. Christ dies in the barren dessert with a ghoulish yellow light in the distance. The off-putting Christ is not intended to connect to the everyday viewer, but instead the patients in the monastery. A porcelain-skinned savior does no good to them while their bodies are deteriorating and dying from the outside in. Christ mirrors their pain in his own suffering on the cross, allowing them to be a step closer to God.

Little is actually known about Matthias Grünewald, only one of his contemporaries, Albert Durer actually rose to modern day fame. However, the altarpiece gives us an introspective look into his life and emotional state. The painting feels as though Grünewald has put his soul into it. He has workedto allow the viewer to not only look, but also to feel. If the viewer doesn’t react to the dying Christ reaching out for a help that never comes, well,  they aren’t looking close enough. One cannot walk away from the painting feeling a sense of happiness for the redemption that awaits them, because how can one feel redeemed when they have caused this man so much anguish? Clearly one man, Paul Hindemith, was touched so much so that he wrote an opera about Matthias Grünewald called Mathis der Maler. Clearly Hindemith is singing Grünewald’s praises, as am I.

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