Enciclopedia Cattolica

ALTDORFER, ALBRECHT

Volume I · p. 562 · 1948

English translation · Testo originale italiano

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

ALTDORFER, ALBRECHT. - German painter, woodcut artist, and architect, born shortly before 1480 in Amberg, died between February 12 and March 29, 1538 in Regensburg. He belongs to the artists of the so-called "Danubian circle" (Donaukreis) and is renowned for his romantic landscapes and lively scenes, though he does not reach the power of Dürer. Many of his signed and dated altarpieces exist,
ALTDORFER, ALBRECHT - Discovery of the Body of St Florian. Nuremberg, Germanic National Museum.

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such as the one at St Florian (1518), which reveals him as a vigorous storyteller. He left a great many drawings, some coloured, and successfully experimented with colour woodcut, reaching up to six blocks. He also practised copper engraving.

BIBL.: E. Friedländer, s. V. in Thieme-Becker, I, pp. 347-48; K. Pfister, Der erste Romantiker der deutschen Kunst: A. A. zur Münchener Ausstellung des Gesamtwerkes, in Illustr. Zeitung, (1938, I), pp. 998-99, (fasc. 4867); O. Benesch, Der Maler A. A., Vienna 1939; L. V. Baldass, A. A., Zurich 1941.

Angelo Lipinsky

Cite this article

“ALTDORFER, ALBRECHT.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. I (1948), p. 562. Azione Romana digital edition, https://azioneromana.com/article/altdorfer-albrecht.