France Guide
Alsace and Lorraine
Musée d'Unterlinden
Address: 1 rue d'Unterlinden
Opening time: May– Oct daily 9am–6pm; Nov– April daily except Tues 9am– noon & 2–5pm; closed public hols
Price: €7
Website: www.musee-unterlinden.com
Colmar's foremost attraction, the Musée d'Unterlinden, is housed in a former Dominican convent with a peaceful cloistered garden The museum's pièce de résistance is the Issenheim altarpiece, thought to have been made between 1512 and 1516 for the monastic order of St Anthony at Issenheim, whose members dedicated themselves to caring for those afflicted by ergotism and other nasty skin diseases. The extraordinary painted panels, now detached so that each can be viewed separately, are the work of Mathias Grünewald (1480–1528); a wooden model on the wall shows how the altarpiece would originally have unfolded to reveal the carved figures at its centre, sculpted by Nicholas de Hagenau. In the closed position, the luridly expressive centre panel depicts the Crucifixion: a tortured Christ of exaggerated dimensions turns his outsize hands upwards, fingers splayed in pain, flanked by his pale, fainting mother and saints John and Mary Magdalene. The face of St Sebastian, on one of the side wings, is believed to have been modelled on Grünewald's own likeness. The reverse panels – which would have been revealed when the altarpiece opened – depict the annunciation, Christ's resurrection, the nativity and a vivid, flamboyant orchestra of angels; all splendidly bathed in transcendental light. On the final set of painted panels, you'll find a truly disturbing representation of the temptation of St Anthony, who is engulfed by a grotesque pack of demons; note the figure afflicted with the disfiguring symptoms of ergotism. Altarpieces by Martin Schongauer, in the same room as the Issenheim, are also worth a quick look, as is the museum's collection of modern paintings, also on the ground floor, which includes a couple of Picassos.