In 1910, Emil Nolde began a series of paintings on religious subjects, which he ultimately combined to produce an altarpiece. His depiction of the Biblical stories is purely subjective, guided by a desire to penetrate the New Testament events emotionally. “Christ in the Underworld is not a matter of knowledge but of faith”, as he wrote later. Like his Expressionist contemporaries, he thus moved in the direction of an art that attempts to exert its impact on the viewer directly, through composition and colour. The tightness of the space, the crowdedness of the sometimes misshapen figures, and the blazing light grant a dramatic glimpse of Limbo.