Behold! The nails with anguish fierce,
His outstretched arms and vitals pierce:
Here our redemption to obtain,
The Mighty Sacrifice is slain.
Where deep for us, the spear was dyed,
Life's torrent rushing from His side
To wash us in that precious flood
Where mingled Water flowed, and Blood.
It is thought that Grunewald's intensely realistic imagery and iconography were inspired by the revelations of St Bridget of Sweden
This is no sanitized version of the Crucifixion. The tortured body of Jesus conveys the pain and agony of a man close to death, nailed to the cross. His wounds bleeding from thorns and beatings. The disfigured, twisted body, with hands outstretched to the heavens, expressively lay bare the gruesome reality of His unimaginable suffering. Jesus is depicted as suffering from the same sores, as the patients in the hospital , a sign to them that He shared in their afflictions.