Het Huis Stoclet in Brussel - Academie voor Beeldende Kunsten Aalst

2. Isenheimschrijn – Colmar
Between 1512 and 1516, the artists Niclaus of Haguenau (for the sculpted portion)
and Grünewald (for the painted panels) created this celebrated altarpiece for the Antonite
order’s monastic complex at Isenheim, a village about 15 miles south of Colmar. This
polyptych, which decorated the high altar of the monastery hospital’s chapel until the
French Revolution, was commissioned by Guy Guers, who served as the institution’s
preceptor from 1490 to 1516.
Established around 1300, the Isenheim monastery belonged to Saint Anthony’s
order, which had been founded in the Dauphiné region of France in the 11th century. The
monks of the Antonite order ministered to victims of Saint Anthony’s fire, a horrible illness
that was common in the Middle Ages. This calamity’s cause is now known to be poisoning
from a fungus (ergot) that grows on rye grass, thus contaminating the rye flour used in
making bread. Ergot contains a chemical that drives its victims mad and results in