February 12 marks the anniversary of the death of Albrecht Altdorfer (1480-1538), little known today but an artist who lived at the same time as the much better known Albrecht Dürer (subject of an earlier blog post here) in Regensburg on the river Danube, just 60 miles from Dürer’s native Nuremberg. I only became aware of him in autumn 2023 when I saw an impressively detailed etching in the Graves Gallery in Sheffield with the caption “one of the first to take an interest in landscape as an independent subject”, i.e. treating the landscape as the subject of the work rather than just a background. The etching on display was of a large spruce; the same etching, in a version with watercolour, appears on the front cover of a book devoted to an exploration of Altdorfer’s landscape works: Albrecht Altdorfer and the origins of landscape by Christopher S. Wood (2014 2nd ed., 405:82.c.201.3).

A number of new publications from the last ten years or so demonstrate a resurgence of interest in Altdorfer in the art world. These include a couple of catalogues accompanying major exhibitions:

• Most recently the Louvre in Paris hosted an exhibition in 2020-2021, presenting the richness and diversity of Altdorfer’s work with a selection of drawings, paintings and prints. The picture on the cover of the catalogue, Albrecht Altdorfer: maître de la Renaissance allemande (S950.a.202.57), is part of a late painting, Die Anbetung der Könige (Adoration of the magi, 1530-35), and features detailed architecture in the background and opulently dressed kings.
• In 2014, less than a year after it held a major exhibition on Dürer (S950.b.201.1451), the Städel Museum in Frankfurt put on an exhibition which later also transferred to Vienna. This considered works by Altdorfer and contemporaries of his active in the Danube region and included paintings, prints and sculpture. The cover of the catalogue, Fantastische Welten: Albrecht Altdorfer und das Expressive in der Kunst um 1500 (S950.a.201.2717)  shows part of his 1518 painting Auferstehung Christi (The resurrection of Christ).

Both these covers show that his innovative treatment of landscape was only one aspect of his wider work. A 2018 companion book to the Frankfurt/Vienna exhibition, Das Expressive in der Kunst 1500-1550: Albrecht Altdorfer und seine Zeitgenossen (S950.a.201.6644), features another example of his fine landscape work, the 1522 Landschaft bei Sonnenuntergang (Landscape at sunset). This book contains the contributions of a 2013 conference held in Leipzig in preparation for the exhibition, presenting the latest findings from the most important researchers.

Two other recent books also consider his landscapes:

• Albrecht Altdorfer in Salzburg: Salzburger Landschaft und Architektur in den Werken des Regensburger Malers (C202.b.2732) and
• Albrecht Altdorfer: mystischer Gottesglauben in Regensburg (C214.c.6934)  which offers a new perspective suggesting that his landscape painting did not represent reality but was imbued with spiritual and religious meaning.

Important works of the early 16th century which both Altdorfer and Dürer contributed to were the woodcut prints commissioned by Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian, the Triumphal procession and Triumphal arch. These are explored in depth in Die Ehrenpforte für Kaiser Maximilian I.: Dürer und Altdorfer im Dienst des Herrschers (S400:01.b.59.96) and Emperor Maximilian I and the age of Dürer (S950.a.201.1266) and reproduced in The Triumph of Maximilian I: 137 woodcuts (Ua.6.401). The procession woodprints are important sources for the history of costume, musical instruments, heraldry, weapons and armour alongside other aspects of Renaissance culture.

Katharine Dicks