ALTDORFER, Albrecht
(b. ca. 1480, Regensburg, d. 1538, Regensburg)

Large Fir

1512-22
Etching with watercolour, 225 x 170 mm
Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg, Coburg

Painters of the Danube school made landscapes a central feature of their works. Landscape became valued for its own sake. Figures and narrative content are often absent. Most of Altdorfer's landscapes are fantasies rather than records of actual towns or places. In this etching he presented a plausible view of a village by a small river with a well-fortified castle above. Conjuring up memories of the German or Alpine countryside, it is a setting for the imagination's delectation.