Le musée Unterlinden et le retable d'Issenheim

Colmar

The convent of the Dominican nuns of Unterlinden, founded in the 13th century, had been empty since the Revolution when, in 1852, the works of art collected in the department were transferred there; the museum opened the following year. Among these works was the altarpiece from the Antonine preceptory of Issenheim, some ten kilometres away, brought to safety in Colmar in 1793. It is there still. It is a polyptych with transformations: according to the day, it was opened onto the Crucifixion, onto the Annunciation and the Resurrection, or onto the gilded sculptures of Nicolas de Haguenau flanked by the Temptation of St Anthony and the Meeting of St Anthony and St Paul the Hermit. The Crucifixion shows a body turned green, covered with splinters, the fingers twisted; in the Temptation, in the foreground, a sick man seated, his belly distended, his skin ulcerated, his extremities eaten away, figures what the brothers of Issenheim saw every day in their ward. The work was not made for connoisseurs: it was shown to the sick, in a hospital chapel, as a promise that their wounds were also those of Christ. It is the most exact document the West has left on St Anthony's fire.

Wikipédia — Musée Unterlinden ↗

Getting there : Place Unterlinden, five minutes' walk from the collegiate church of Saint-Martin and from Colmar station; underground car parks in the immediate vicinity. Museum with an admission charge, open all year except a few public holidays, closed one day a week; ticket and opening times on the museum's website. The altarpiece occupies the former convent church, where one can walk around the panels: it deserves a good half-hour, and a second visit.

Opening times and access details are given as a guide only: check before you set out.

Ambient sound