Altdorfer, Albrecht

born с 1480

died Feb. 12, 1538, Regensburg

German painter and printmaker.

He was the leading artist of the Danube school. Most of his works depict religious subjects, but he was one of the first artists to develop landscape painting as an independent genre, specializing in sunset lighting and ruins in twilight. His drawings demonstrate these skills in black with white highlights on dark paper. The influence of Albrecht Dürer is evident in his miniature engravings and woodcuts. From 1526 until his death he was town architect of Regensburg; no architectural work of his is known to have survived.

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▪ German artist

born c. 1480

died Feb. 12, 1538, Regensburg [Germany]

 German painter, printmaker, and draftsman who was one of the founders of landscape painting.

      Altdorfer spent most of his life in Regensburg, becoming a citizen in 1505 and in later years serving as official architect of the city and a member of its inner council. He was the guiding spirit of the Danube school of painting. His early figure paintings show a growing preoccupation with landscape, until in “St. George and the Dragon” (1510) the knight is practically overwhelmed by the primeval forest in which he performs his feat. With the “Regensburg Landscape” (c. 1522–25) and other works, Altdorfer painted the first pure landscapes—i.e., landscape scenes containing no human figures whatsoever—since antiquity. His favourite subject was the leafy and impenetrable forests of Germany and Austria. He was also among the first to depict sunset lighting and picturesque ruins in twilight. Several of his altar panels in the Church of St. Florian near Linz, completed in 1518, depicting the Passion of Christ and the martyrdom of St. Sebastian, are night scenes in which he exploited the possibilities of torch light, star light, or twilight with unusual brilliance. Altdorfer's masterpiece, the “Battle of Alexander at Issus” (1529; Alte Pinakothek, Munich), is both a battle scene of incredible detail and a highly dramatic and expressive landscape.

      The fantastic element that pervaded Altdorfer's paintings was also prominent in his drawings, most of which were done in black with white highlights on brown or blue-gray paper. His engravings and woodcuts, usually miniatures, are distinguished by their playful inventiveness. Late in his career he used the new medium of etching to produce a series of landscapes.

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