Albrecht Altdorfer

Albrecht Altdorfer (1480–1538) was born and died at Regensburg in Bavaria, where he worked throughout his life and eventually served on the city council as an architect and municipal official. He is the leading figure of the Danube School, and his particular contribution is landscape. Altdorfer painted some of the earliest pure landscapes in Western art — pictures with no narrative subject at all — and even in his religious works the forest, mountain and sky press in on the sacred event until they nearly overwhelm it. The effect is atmospheric and slightly unsettling, and quite unlike anything happening in Italy at the same moment. He was also a prolific printmaker. Three works here: Christ Taking Leave of His Mother, the Nativity of Christ, and St Florian's Martyrdom, from a cycle on that saint's life.