Albrecht Altdorfer
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Architect, engraver and German painter, Albrecht Altdorfer was born in 1482/1485 in Ratisbonne, and died in the same town in 1538.
He was the main representative of the famous “School of Danube” with Wolf Huner (1485-1553) and Augustin Hirschvogel (1503-1553). This school of Danube includes artists located in the valley of the river from Ratisbonne to Passau and Vienna. Their work is characterized by a special interest in landscape and plant kingdom. Artists from Danube school were the first to treat pure landscape in watercolor and gouache, and they were attached to the depiction of the atmosphere.
Albecht Altdorfer differs from his contemporaries by a certain poetic fantasy of his work, by a lively apprehension and characteristic of the nature and a surprising “virtuosity” of his insights. Among his works, he drew 8 landscapes and nine independent engravings, not just studies for painting. His etchings, light and free, imitate landscapes designated to please to new enthusiast customer. His depictions are often small, with a fine performance and his paintings are mythological or religious tendency.
His mainly paintings are:
The nativity (1507- Breme museum), Rest on the Flight into Egypt (1510) and Nativity (Berlin Museum); Stage of the life of St. Florian (Museum of Nuremberg and Florence) Birth of Mary, Landscape, Suzanne bath (1526 - Museum of Munich), Two Crucifixion (1526 - Museums in Kassel and Berlin), The Battle of Alexander (1529 - Museum of Munich) is his most famous painting. It represents the victory by Alexander the Great that he won against Darius in 333, Emperor of the Persians at Issus in Asia Minor.
Also engraver, he is the author of tiny brass (etchings) where he succeeds in depicting similar effects in his paintings.
His brother, Ernhar, born in 1845 in Ratisbonne was also an architect, engraver and painter. He died in Schwerin in 1845.