Altdorfer

Altdorfer, ALBRECHT, painter, engraver, and architect, was born at Ratisbon about 1480, and died there in February 1538. It is not certain whether he was a pupil of Dürer; at any rate, he belongs to that religious school of artists of which Dürer was the head. His pictures are animated by a glowing and romantic poetic spirit; and the landscape is delineated with the same truth and tenderness as the figures. His masterpiece, now in Munich, is 'Alexander's Victory over Darius.' As an engraver, Altdorfer is reckoned among the 'Little Masters.' See W. B. Scott's Little Masters (1879).