From Publishers Weekly
A precursor of Romanticism by more than 300 years, German painter and engraver Albrecht Altdorfer did fantastical landscapes and expressive religious scenes that look as fresh today as when they were painted. His popular pen-and-ink drawings, rich in detail and awash in delicate white filigree, play up the wild, untamed character of nature. His huge painting The Battle of Alexander, a vortex of the violent forces of humans and nature, draws the viewer like a magnet. His nativities are plunged in darkness yet lit by magic brilliance. Even his architectural sketches have a freewheeling spontaneity and grandeur. A contemporary of Durer, Altdorfer steadfastly went his own way and ultimately became the darling of 19th century Romantics. This densely packed catalogue of a Paris exhibition combines specialized essays with marvelous reproductions as well as facsimiles of the artist's illustrations for a prayer book, reproduced here on vellum paper.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Altdorfer is considered the master of the "Danube School," a style, despite the name, not exclusively German. There is disagreement among scholars as to which artists were part of the movement. While most artists of the early 16th century continued to be fascinated by human beings, those of the Danube Schoolmany of whom are included in this catalogtended to emphasize nature. The ultimate example is Altdorfer's "Battle of Alexander," wherein a cast of thousands is dwarfed by a fantastic, almost Surrealistic, landscape and sky. The color reproductions are exceptionally fine. This catalog, for an exhibition at the Centre Culturel du Marais, Paris, is a welcome addition to the literature on Altdorfer and the Danube School, most of which is in German and out of print. Eleanor Riley, Getty Conservation Inst. Lib., Marina del Rey, Cal.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
