Grünewald, Isenheim altarpiece. c1510. Painted for the Monastery of St. Anthony that specialized in helping people with skin diseases and often erogtism caused by rye fungus. Jesus is depicted with the marks of the disease.

St John points and the text by him says: ‘He must increase, I must decrease.’

 

“We think of John the Baptist in Grünewald’s painting of the crucifixion, with his strangely pointing hand. It is this hand which is in evidence in the Bible.” Karl Barth, lecture.

“I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; my mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.” Psalm 22:14-15.