The reason I picked the crucifixion is that it's so rife with
symbolism, and means so many different things to so many
different people, and interpretations change so radically over
the ages. The Isenheim Altarpiece was once hung in a hospital to
help bring relief from suffering for dying people...now, we look
on it with horror, if anything, for its graphic gruesomeness.
afaict The 8 panels of the Isenheim Altarpiece were commissioned
for the church of a monastery that housed a hospice for mainly
terminal victims of the plague. Interpretation of the
iconography is controversial because it isn't certain which day
which panel was opened, or what purpose each stage served. The
performance for which the paintings were designed has been lost,
the original meaning has been lost. So interpretation of one
panel, showing Christ's suffering on the Cross, as intended to
produce a bond of sympathy with the suffering of the plague
victims; and interpretation of another panel, showing the clean
body of the Risen Christ, as