In this class, we continued our discussion of Grünewalds’ Isenheim Altarpiece through its inner panels, which revealed further differences between it and the other altarpieces we have seen. The intense contrast between the clearness and purity of the Ascension and the outer Crucifixion panels make them seem completely opposed to one another. The Temptation of St Anthony adds devilish hybrid animals attacking the saint, which would have helped patients relate their sufferings to the piece. This altarpiece is unlike any others in the ways it contrasts the gruesome or the earthly and the pure or heavenly. The center of the final opening presented gilded wood sculptures of three saints. While we have seen these types of works before, they have often been separate from a painted altarpiece. Riemenschneider’s altarpiece provides an example of an entirely sculptural altarpiece that was not gilded or polychromatic but washed in a natural brown. This type of altarpiece is a departure from the Italian-style works we have seen and is distinctly Germanic. I also found it interesting that the carpenter who worked on the frame received equal compensation to the artist, as this reminded me that people at the time would not have seen the work as art but as a functional object.