Altdorfer: Colour Plates

By Maria Peitcheva

Albrecht Altdorfer (c. 1480 - 1538) was a German painter, engraver and architect of the Renaissance working in Regensburg. Along with Lucas Cranach the Elder and Wolf Huber he is regarded to be the main representative of the so-called Danube School setting biblical and historical subjects against landscape backgrounds of expressive colours. As an artist also making small intricate engravings he is seen to belong to the Nuremberg Little Masters. His training is unknown, but his early work was influenced by Cranach and Durer's art too was known to him through the woodcuts and engravings. Mingled with these German impressions was knowledge of the art of Mantegna, perhaps through the mediation of Michael Pacher. Yet in spite of these varied influences Altdorfer's style always remained personal. Most of his paintings are religious works, but he was one of the first artists to show an interest in landscape as an independent genre. He was the first European to paint forests, sunsets, and picturesque ruins, in which he represented man as part of nature, allied with trees, rocks, mountains, and clouds and often resembling them. In works such as the altar for St Florian near Linz (1518) or the Christ Taking Leave of His Mother (National Gallery, London) he achieved a wonderful unity of mood between action and landscape, and two pure landscape paintings (without any figures) by him are known (National Gallery, London, and Alte Pinakothek, Munich). His patrons included the emperor Maximilian and Louis X, Duke of Bavaria, for whom he painted the celebrated Battle of Issos (Alte Pinakothek, Munich, 1529), which formed part of a large series of famous battle-pieces from Classical antiquity. With its dazzling light effects, teeming figures, and brilliant colours, it is one of the finest examples of Altdorfer's rich imaginative powers.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1542624630
• ISBN13: 9781542624633
• Release Date: January 2017
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 54 Pages
• Weight: 0.43 lbs.
• Dimensions: 11.0" x 0.1" x 8.5"