The Isenheim Altarpiece and the Abbot's Herbarium

. 
The Visit of St. Anthony to St. Paul the Hermit (detail) & the Isenheim Atlarpiece (open position)

The Apples of Apollo¹

Carl A. P. Ruck; Blaise Daniel Staples; Clark Heinrich

Pages: 216 - 232

The Isenheim Altarpiece is the high altar of the Anthonite abbey church in the Alsatian village of Isenheim. Through its several configurations, it displays various scenes from the life of Christ and the somewhat eccentric career of St. Anthony the Hermit. Although originally commissioned in 1460, it is the painted panels executed between 1512-1516 by the German artist Matthias Grünewald that the discussion is chiefly concerned with.

The Anthonites were a hospital order originating in south-central France. The brotherhood however, traced its spiritual lineage from the fourth century Egyptian ascetic St. Anthony the Hermit, who founded the Thebaids, an anchorite community living in the desert. Due to the recognition of St. Anthony’s shamanistic trials in the wilderness, Roman Catholicism came to place him in the company of those such as John the Baptist and Jesus himself. He consequently assumed the role of protector against temptation and illness; a healer saint, who inevitably embodied the ancient dichotomy of healer/inflicter, where the healer of the toxin was also the holder. He was the patron saint of ergotism (the primary infliction of seekers of the Anthonite order), his emblem was the pig, and accordingly was considered the patron of swineherds, merchants, mushroom gatherers and purveyors. Believed to wander the forests with his belled staff, he dispersed the evil spirits which kept the good mushrooms out of sight. 

And so, the Isenheim Altarpiece: the emblematic focus of the pilgrim. A vehicle for the inflicted to embody the divine suffering and resultant jubilation of the successful saint and Christ. Three arrangements of nine paintings, excluding the predella. In the closed position, the Crucifixion dominates in the centre, flanked by a serene post-martyred St. Sebastian at left, and a contemplative St. Anthony to the right. The semi-open or middle position features (from left to right) the Annunciation, an Angelic Court, the Nativity and the Resurrection. Finally, in the open position we find the 'shrine', gilded carvings of an earlier altarpiece (featuring an enthroned St. Anthony flanked by Sts. Augustine and Jerome above Christ and the twelve apostles). This, framed by The Visit of St. Anthony to St. Paul the Hermit (left), and The Temptation of St. Anthony (right). 

 The literal description seems simple enough, albeit inconsistent: a menagerie of disparate events in St. Anthony's career and the life of Christ, compiled in poor chronology. And of course, this has confounded, to varying degrees, the minds of critics and historians for centuries. It is here that the authors attempt to harmonise an apparent discord.  

Allowing the seemingly incoherent semantics to be appreciated as a deliberate and informed arrangement, the authors have endeavoured to illuminate the mystery and motives behind an obscure and antiquated symbology. Spacial relationships in conjunction with subtle visual accentuations and iconographic tweeks are convincingly utilised to tend the reader towards more involved and abstact signals and symbols. An increasingly informed observer results, in anticipation for a pronounced but humble representation of the order's gnosis. The Anthonite's pharmacopea.

Rigorously researched, linguistically precise and written with the kind of acute awareness essential to the study of culturally sensitive or taboo subject matter; this text and its parent work offer a high water mark in the academic inquiry of this genre. Although at times tending towards the verbose, it is the care and absolute pride in the work itself which will stand sentinel over time.

Iason Yannakos

1. Ruck, C, Staples, B & Heinrich C, 2000, The Apples of Apollo: Pagan and Christian Mysteries of the Eucharist, Carolina Academic Press, North Carolina