Albrecht Altdorfer

The Battle of Issus
1528-29
Oil on canvas
Alte Pinakothek, Munich

"German painter and printmaker. He studied in Austria, where he came into contact with engravings by both Durer and Mantegna. However, he settled in Regensburg, where he spent the rest of his career, specializing in religious and historical subjects. Like some other artists of the Reformation period, his emphasis was less on the religious aspects of his work than on the landscape, and Altdorfer became one of the most important representatives of the Danube School of Painting, which was dominated by an interest in landscape. His most important work is the Battle of Issus (1529, Munich, Alte Pinakothek). This work, which gives a sense of infinity through its use of panoramic landscape and thousands of minute figures, was a new development in battle painting. The landscape here became more significant than the figures."

- From The Bulfinch Guide to Art History