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Landscape with a Footbridge
Albrecht Altdorferabout 1518-20
The National Gallery, London
London, United Kingdom
A wooden bridge spans a river. In the distance are mountains, and then a church spire and the houses of a village. The details of the composition may be based on the topography of specific locations in the Danube valley, but the landscape is probably not intended as a view of a particular place.
This picture is a very early example by a Western European artist of an independent landscape painted without figures. A second landscape by Altdorfer in Munich (Alte Pinakothek) is also without figures; the present picture possibly dates from about 1518-20 and may be the earlier of the two.
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Details
- Title: Landscape with a Footbridge
- Creator: Albrecht Altdorfer
- Date Created: about 1518-20
- Physical Dimensions: 41.2 x 35.5 cm
- Type: Painting
- Medium: Oil on vellum on wood
- School: German (Danube)
- More Info: Explore the National Gallery’s paintings online
- Inventory number: NG6320
- Artist Dates: shortly before 1480 - 1538
- Artist Biography: Altdorfer was one of the most outstanding landscape painters. He lived for most of his life in the city of Regensburg on the Danube. Often grouped with the so-called Danube School, his work included landscape and natural plant forms as expressive elements even in religious works, such as the Gallery's 'Christ taking Leave of his Mother'. He painted brightly coloured images rooted in German Late Gothic love of ornament, and in its poetic feeling for nature. He also worked as a draughtsman, designer and printmaker, and pursued a career as an architect and town councillor. Altdorfer was born in about 1480 in Bavaria and was probably trained by his father Ulrich. He acquired rights of citizenship in Regensburg in 1505. During his lifetime various upheavals took place in the city, such as the conversion to Protestantism, and the expulsion of the Jews in 1519. His works suggest a knowledge of Italian painting, although whether he visited Italy itself remains an open question. It is virtually certain that on more than one occasion he travelled along the Danube. Altdorfer died in 1538 after a successful political life, and a prosperous artistic one; it is thought that he had a fairly large workshop.
- Acquisition Credit: Bought, 1961
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