Holy Martyr

Matthias Grünewald, the most expressively powerful German painter of the sixteenth century, created this Holy Martyr panel around 1511. Grünewald's intensely emotional religious art stands in dramatic contrast to Dürer's classical rationalism, and his visionary approach to color and form made his surviving works among the most extraordinary achievements in European art. The tempera medium required careful preparation on a gessoed panel and a disciplined layering technique that produced precise, durable surfaces suited to the intricate detail expected of devotional painting.

The panel displays Grünewald's extraordinary command of color and light, with luminous glazes creating an almost supernatural radiance that distinguishes his work from all contemporaries.