Albrecht Altdorfer

Biographical data about Albrecht Altdorfer’s life are scarce: Probably born in Regensburg as the son of the painter and miniaturist Ulrich Altdorfer, he became a citizen of Regensburg in 1505. He produced his first small-format copperplate engravings with mythological and religious themes, then witches and lansquenets, also autonomous drawings on coloured paper. In 1507 Altdorfer painted his first small paintings of ecclesiastical and secular content with a completely independent colourfulness that echoed the early works of Lucas Cranach. Like his drawings, his paintings of the Holy Family at the Fountain, Berlin, and Saint George, Munich, which are based on a direct feeling for nature, show an independent expressiveness that makes him, along with Cranach, the most important representative of the Danube School.
From 1511 onwards, Altdorfer produced numerous woodcuts depicting religious and profane subjects; alongside large sheets with often figure-rich depictions, there are small ones with idyllic or dramatic two-figure scenes. Altdorfer was also involved in the woodcuts for Emperor Maximilian’s Gate of Honour, which were executed according to Jörg Kölderer’s designs. With the paintings of the Passion and the Legend of St. Sebastian for the monastery of St. Florian, Altdorfer produced his main work of painting after 1515, followed by the Battle of Alexander, which Altdorfer refused to be elected mayor to complete in 1528. However, he accepted the appointment as city architect in view of the possibility of renewing the city’s fortifications because of the Turkish threat in 1529/30.