Isenheim Altar

Altarpiece by the German painter Matthias Grünewald (1510–15), executed for the convent of the order of St Anthony at Isenheim, Alsace.

It is a polyptych showing in its original complete form a collaboration between the painter and the woodcarver Backoffen. Backoffen's work is a centrepiece of St Anthony enthroned, with St Augustine and St Jerome, and carvings in the predella of Christ and the 12 apostles. The painted scenes by Grünewald, presented by the opening or closing of the several panels, are: St Anthony assisting the hermit Paul; the temptation of St Anthony; the Annunciation; the Virgin among angelic musicians; the Virgin and Child; the Resurrection; and the Crucifixion. On the predella, when closed, there is a pietà. In two wings flanking the closed centrepiece (Crucifixion) are St Anthony and St Sebastian, the latter the supposed portrait of the artist.