Albrecht Altdorfer
Albrecht Altdorfer
Albrecht Altdorfer (c. 1480 near Regensburg – 12 February 1538 in Regensburg) was a German painter, printmaker and architect of the Renaissance era, the leader of the Danube School in southern Germany, and a near-contemporary of Albrecht Dürer. He is best known as a significant pioneer of landscape in art.
He most often painted religious scenes, but is mainly famous as the first frequent painter of pure landscape, and also compositions dominated by their landscape. Taking and developing the landscape style of Lucas Cranach the Elder, he shows the hilly landscape of the Danube valley with thick forests of drooping and crumbling firs and larches hung with moss, and often dramatic colouring from a rising or setting sun.
He was a member of the ruling town council in Regensburg for many years, as well as the city architect and worked on improving the city walls. He presumably participated in the Council’s decision to expel the city’s Jewish community in 1519 , as well as making two famous etchings of the synagogue just before it was destroyed after the expulsion, to be replaced with a church, which Altdorfer designed, at least in part. Later he became a Protestant, and helped to steer Regensburg to Lutheranism.
Albrecht’s brother, Erhard Altdorfer, was also a painter and printmaker in woodcut and engraving, and a pupil of Lucas Cranach the Elder.
The penitence of St. Jerome, 1507
Oil on panel
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Gemaldegalerie, Berlin, Germany ▼
Landscape with Satyr Family, 1507
Oil on panel
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Gemaldegalerie, Berlin, Germany ▼
St. George, 1510
Oil on wood
Alte Pinakothek
München, Germany ▼
The rest on the flight into Egypt, 1510
Oil on panel
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Gemaldegalerie, Berlin, Germany ▼
The martyrdom of St. Florian, 1515
Oil on wood
Galleria degli Uffizi
Florence, Italy ▼
Crucifixion, 1520
Oil on wood
Szépmüvészeti Muzeum
Budapest, Hungary ▼
Susanna at her bath and the stoning of the old men, 1526
Oil on wood
Alte Pinakothek
München, Germany ▼
The Crucifixion, 1526
Oil on panel
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Gemaldegalerie, Berlin, Germany ▼
Alexander’s victory (The battle at the Issus), 1529
Oil tempera on wood
Alte Pinakothek
München, Germany ▼
