Grünewald, Matthias

Grünewald, Matthias

 orig. Mathis Gothardt Neithardt or Mathis Gothart Nithart

(born c. 1480, Würzburg, bishopric of Würzburg—died August 1528, Halle, archbishopric of Magdeburg) German painter. Details of his early life are vague. By c. 1509 he was court painter to the archbishop of Mainz and had established a successful career, concentrating on religious themes. Around 1511 he was commissioned to add two wings to the Assumption of the Virgin altarpiece recently completed by Albrecht Dürer. In 1515 he completed his most important commission, the wings of the Isenheim Altarpiece in the Antonite monastery in southern Alsace (now in the museum in Colmar, Fr.). Considered his masterpiece, it features distorted figures, extreme emotional intensity, brooding colour, and draperies that expand and contract in accordion pleats, a hallmark of his style. About 10 paintings and 35 drawings survive. He had no known pupils and, unlike his contemporaries, did not produce woodcuts or engravings, but his painterly achievement remains one of the most striking in the history of northern European art.