A Chaos of Fingers

• In Event: Raging Pain, Radiating Glory: Grünewald’s Isenheim Altarpiece in German-Jewish Thought

Abstract

In 1906, Franz Rosenzweig traveled to Colmar in order to see Matthias Grünewald’s Isenheim Altarpiece. After viewing it, he wrote a lengthy letter to his mother, describing in detail his enthusiastic reaction to the depiction of Christ’s passion and resurrection. Years later, in a 1920 letter to Gritli, Rosenzweig again recalled his trip to Colmar, this time associating his visit with the onset of his “first crisis.” Meanwhile, it was in those same years that Walter Benjamin was beginning his own fascination with the altarpiece. In his memoiristic account of their friendship, Gershom Scholem noted that already by 1916 “a print of…Grünewald’s Isenheim Altarpiece hung on the wall of his study, where it would remain for many years to come.” Like Rosenzweig, Benjamin made a trip to Colmar so that he could “see the original” in person.

Beginning with a biographical narration of Benjamin and Rosenzweig’s common interest in the altarpiece, this paper will offer a comparative look at the role it plays in their philosophical and theological writing. In particular, the paper will argue that for both thinkers the altarpiece became central to their reflections on the notion of Ausdruck (expression). In addition to setting their work within the context of debates about “expressionism,” the paper will attend to each writer’s conceptualization of the altarpiece’s mode of expression. While Rosenzweig saw in the image’s “chaos of fingers” a pure moment of expression, Benjamin argued that the image illustrates his notion of the Ausdruckslose, the “expressionless.” The paper will conclude with general comments on the importance of considering Grünewald’s altarpiece in the assessment of Benjamin and Rosenzweig’s aesthetic theories.

Author

• Adam Stern