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ALTDORFER, Albrecht
German Northern Renaissance Painter, ca.1480-1538
Albrecht Altdorfer (c. 1480 near Regensburg ?C 12 February 1538 in Regensburg) was a German painter, printmaker and architect of the Renaissance era, the leader of the Danube School in southern Germany, and a near-contemporary of Albrecht D??rer. He is best known as a significant pioneer of landscape in art.
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. [1] 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. His most famous religious artwork is the The Legend of St. Sebastian and the Passion of Christ that decorated the altar in the St. Florian monastery in Linz, Austria. 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. Related Paintings of ALTDORFER, Albrecht :. | The Arrest of Christ | The Battle of Alexander (detail) vcvv | The Battle of Alexander (detail) bbb | The Resurrection of Christ jjkk | Communion of the Apostles | Related Artists: maskeradtapetenParrocel, JosephFrench, 1646-1704
He studied with his father Barthelemy Parrocel (1595-1660) and then with his elder brother Louis Parrocel (1634-94). He went to Paris for four years to perfect his work and then, c. 1667, to Rome, where he became the pupil of the battle painter Jacques Courtois and was influenced by Salvator Rosa. He remained in Italy for eight years and stayed for a time in Venice, before returning to settle in Paris in 1675. He was approved (agree) by the Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in February 1676 and received as a full member in November of the same year, presenting the Siege of Maastricht (Draguignan, Mus. Mun.). His painted oeuvre consists principally of military scenes, particularly battles, and he received numerous royal commissions. In the period 1685-8 he executed 11 paintings for the Salle du Grand Couvert at the cheteau of Versailles (nine in situ; one in Tours, Mus. B.-A.; one in Dijon, Mus. B.-A.); in 1699 he painted the Crossing of the Rhine (Paris, Louvre.) for the cheteau of Marly, Yvelines, and in 1700 he executed the Fair at Bezons (Tours, Mus. B.-A.), anticipating the fetes galantes of Antoine Watteau. He was also the author of a number of hunting scenes . His most important religious paintings were the May of Notre-Dame de Paris of 1694, St John the Baptist Preaching (Arras, Mus. B.-A.) and St Augustin Succouring the Sick (c. 1703; Nantes, Mus. B.-A.), which was intended for the monastery in the Place des Victoires in Paris. He also contributed battle scenes to the backgrounds of portraits by Hyacinthe Rigaud and by Gabriel Blanchard. His technique was highly original in the context of his time; he employed a very free style of execution and used thick impasto and intense colours. He was also a prolific engraver, producing around 100 plates, Edmund Dorrell1778-1857
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