Altdorfer, Albrecht (c. 1480–1538)

German painter, architect, and printmaker. He was active in Regensburg, Bavaria. He is best known for his vast panoramic battle scenes in which his use of light creates movement and drama. On a smaller scale, he also painted some of the first true landscapes (see landscape painting).

With Albrecht Dürer and Lucas Cranach, Altdorfer is regarded as one of the leaders of the German Renaissance. He is noted for his development of landscape as a main pictorial feature, evidently being impressed by the scenery of the Austrian Alps in 1511 when he journeyed down the Danube into Austria, or perhaps by earlier journeys. As well as forests and mountains, he studied effects of light, and being city architect of Ratisbon, his architectural tastes caused him to introduce elaborate buildings into some pictures. His engravings on wood and copper are second only to those of Dürer. St George and the Dragon (1510, Alte Pinakothek, Munich) is an example of his landscape style; The Battle of Issus (1529, also Munich) is a dramatic panorama.