View of Sarmingstein an der Donau

The artists of the Danube School were the first to depict nature in such a way that the landscape did not only serve as the setting for a scene but was the main theme of the work of art. The Sarmingstein on the Danube, together with a few drawings by Wolf Huber, has been regarded as a milestone in art history, not only because it is one of the earliest independent landscapes, but also because it is one of the very first depictions of a landscape which can be identified as an existing geographical location. Altdorfer shows the Danube and mountains rising steeply above it from a viewpoint well above the river, which implies that the drawing was not made from nature but from memory.

Szilvia Bodnár