Matthias Grünewald

Mathis Gothart Nithart, known since the 17th century by the mistaken name Grünewald, served as court artist to the archbishops of Mainz and also worked as a hydraulic engineer. He turned away from the classical harmony of his contemporary Dürer and painted with late Gothic intensity and blazing colour. His Isenheim Altarpiece, made for a monastery that nursed victims of ergotism and plague, shows Christ's body torn and pitted with sores. Only ten paintings and some 35 drawings survive.