[[Image:Albrecht Altdorfer 029.jpg|thumb|right|230px|Resurrection by Altdorfer, 1518]]

'''Albrecht Altdorfer''' (c. [[1480]] near [[Regensburg]] – [[February 12]], [[1538]] in [[Regensburg]]) was a German [[painter]] and [[printmaker]], 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 painting|landscape]] in art.

==Painting==
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. His ''Landscape with footbridge'' ([[National Gallery, London]]) of 1518-20 is claimed to be the first pure landscape in oil. [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Albrecht_Altdorfer_019.jpg] He also made many fine finished drawings, mostly landscapes, in pen and [[watercolour]]. His best religious scenes are intense, sometimes verging on the expressionistic, and often depict moments of intimacy between Christ and his mother, or others. He often distorts perspective to subtle effect. His donor figures are often painted completely out of scale with the main scene, as in paintings of the previous centuries. He also painted some portraits; overall his painted oeuvre was not large.

==Paintings in Munich==
[[Image:Altdorfer Alexander.jpg|left|thumb|250px|''[[The Battle of Alexander at Issus|The Battle of Issus/Alexander]]'', 1529, <br />Wood, 158,4 x 120,3 cm Alte Pinakothek, Munich.]]
His rather atypical ''[[The Battle of Alexander at Issus|Battle of Issus]]'' (or of ''[[Alexander the Great|Alexander]]'') of 1529 was commissioned by [[William IV, Duke of Bavaria]] as one of a suite by various artists. It is his most famous, and certainly one of his best works. He renounced the office of Major of Regensburg to accept the commission. Few of his other paintings resemble this apocalyptic scene of two huge armies dominated by an extravagant landscape seen from a very high viewpoint, which looks south over the whole Mediterranean from modern Turkey to include the island of [[Cyprus]] and the mouths of the [[Nile]] and the [[Red Sea]] (behind the isthmus to the left) on the other side. However his style here is a development of that of a number of miniatures of battle-scenes he had done much earlier for [[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor]] in his [[illuminated manuscript]] ''Triumphal Procession'' in 1512-14. [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Albrecht_Altdorfer_039.jpg]

The ''Battle'' is now in the [[Alte Pinakothek]], which has the best collection of Altdorfer's paintings, including also his small ''St George and the Dragon'',(1510) in oil on [[parchment]], where the saint and the dragon are small figures almost submerged in the dense forest that towers over them. A ''Susanna and the Elders'' (1526) set outside an Italianate skyscraper of a palace shows his interest in architecture.[http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Albrecht_Altdorfer_037.jpg] Another small oil on parchment, ''Danube Landscape with Castle Wörth'' (c 1520) is one of the earliest accurate topographical paintings of a particular building in its setting, of a type that was to become a cliché in later centuries. [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Albrecht_Altdorfer_007.jpg]

==Printmaking==
[[Image:Albrecht Altdorfer 045.jpg|thumb|right|230px|St George and the Dragon, 1510, [[Alte Pinakothek]], oil on parchment, 28 x 23 cm]]
He was a significant [[printmaker]] with numerous [[engraving]]s and about ninety-three [[woodcut]]s. These included some for the ''Triumphs of Maximilian'', where he followed the overall style presumably set by [[Hans Burgkmair]], although he was able to escape somewhat from this in his depictions of the more disorderly baggage-train, still coming through a mountain landscape. However most of his best [[Old master print|prints]] are [[etching]]s, many of landscapes; in these he was able most easily to use his drawing style.[http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/intg/ho_1993.1097.htm] He was one of the most successful early etchers, and was unusual for his generation of German printmakers in doing no book illustrations. He often combined etching and engraving techniques in a single plate, and produced about 122 intaglio prints altogether.

==Public life==
He was a member of the ruling town council in Regensburg for many years, as well as the city [[architect]], and 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.[http://www.jg-regensburg.de/graphics/altdorfer2.jpg] [http://www.uwm.edu/~corre/buxdorf/regensburg2.jpg] 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]].
{{-}}

==See also==
[[Image:Albrecht Altdorfer 017.jpg|thumb|left|230px|Crucifixion (a scene rarely set on the banks of a large river) by Altdorfer, c. 1520]]
*[[Early Renaissance painting]]

==References==
*Alte Pinakotek, Munich; (Summary Catalogue -various authors),1986, Edition Lipp,ISBN 3874907015
*CS Wood, Albrecht Altdorfer and the Origins of Landscape, 1993, Reaktion Books, London, ISBN 0948462469
==External links==
{{commonscat|Albrecht Altdorfer}}
*[http://www.zeno.org/Kunstwerke/A/Altdorfer,+Albrecht Works by Altdorfer at Zeno.org]
*[http://www.all-art.org/history230-10-2.html Albrecht Altdorfer in the "History of Art"]
*[http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/altdorfer_albrecht.html Page at artcyclopedia.com]
*[http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/altdorfer/ Page at ibiblio.org]
*[http://gallery.euroweb.hu/html/a/altdorfe/ Page at gallery.euroweb.hu]
*[http://www.artchive.com/artchive/A/altdorfer.html Page at artchive.com]

{{Persondata
|NAME=Altdorfer, Albrecht
|ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
|SHORT DESCRIPTION=German renaissance painter
|DATE OF BIRTH=about [[1480]]
|PLACE OF BIRTH=[[Regensburg]]
|DATE OF DEATH={{death date|1538|2|12|df=y}}
|PLACE OF DEATH=[[Regensburg]]
}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Altdorfer, Albrecht}}
[[Category:1480s births]]
[[Category:1538 deaths]]
[[Category:German painters]]
[[Category:German Renaissance painters]]
[[Category:People from Bavaria]]
[[Category:German printmakers]]
[[Category:German artists]]
[[Category:Manuscript illuminators]]

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