“Danube Landscape with Castle Wörth”
“Danube Landscape with Castle Wörth” is an oil on panel painting by the German northern Renaissance artist, Albrecht Altdorfer, from circa 1520-1525. The landscape depicted was near Altdorfer’s home in Regensburg, where he formally became a citizen in 1505.
Regensburg is a city at the confluence of the Danube, Regen, and Naab Rivers in Germany. At the time this was painted, it was a commercially and culturally prosperous Free Imperial City and remained so until 1803. Altdorfer lived and worked in Regensburg for most of his life, serving as the city’s official architect. Scheuchenberg is the mountain in the background. The castle depicted is the castle of Wörth located along the Danube River, which Altdorfer included in several of his works.
Altdorfer is mostly remembered for his association with the Danube School of Art, which he is regarded of as the leader and main representative. He is regarded as the first artist to paint pure landscapes, such as this piece here.
Altdorfer loved painting nature and one of his favorite subjects was the dense forests of Germany and Austria, which he included in most of his art. If there were human figures in his work, they had to share the canvas with the beautiful and detailed landscapes which were the dominant feature. This is strikingly different from most artists of the day, who were solely occupied with commissioned biblical works (though Altdorfer did paint his fair share of biblical pieces).
“Danube landscape with Castle Wörth” is one of only two pure landscape paintings by Altdorfer that are known. It is currently in the collections of the Alte Pinakothek, of the Pinakotheken museums and the Bavarian State Painting Collections in Munich, Germany.
For more on Albrecht Altdorfer, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
