The Rule of Bacchus [left panel]

Historical Context

Albrecht Altdorfer's triptych panels depicting the Rule of Bacchus, Fall of Man, and Rule of Mars from around 1535 represent the Regensburg master working in the tradition of moralizing allegory popular in early sixteenth-century German humanist circles. Altdorfer was court painter to Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria and a leading figure of the Danube school, known for subordinating human figures to vast landscape settings of extraordinary naturalistic observation. These allegorical panels, combining mythological personifications with densely rendered landscape, demonstrate the humanist ambitions of a painter who was simultaneously the century's greatest landscape innovator and a sophisticated interpreter of classical mythology. The triptych format suggests original function as a decorative ensemble for a library or studiolo.

Technical Analysis

The oil on hardboard, transferred from panel, demonstrates the Danube School's characteristic fusion of detailed natural observation with fantastical imagery. The dense, decorative treatment of foliage and the rich coloring reflect Altdorfer's distinctive approach to mythological narrative.

Provenance

Professor Wieser, Innsbruck, by 1891.[1] Lacher von Eisack, Bad Tölz, Oberbayern.[2] (Paul Cassirer, Berlin).[3] Baron Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza [1875-1947], Schloss Rohoncz, Hungary, and later Villa Favorita, Lugano-Castagnola, Switzerland, by 1930;[4] by inheritance to his son, Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza [1921-2002], Villa Favorita; acquired 1950 by (M. Knoedler & Co., New York);[5] purchased February 1951 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[6] gift 1952 to NGA. [1] As per Max Friedländer, _Albrecht Altdorfer, der Maler von Regensburg_, Leipzig, 1891: 56, no. 27. [2] Cited by Rudolf Heinemann, _Stiftung Sammlung Schloss Rohoncz_, Lugano-Castagnola, 1937: 2. [3] Information from annotated copy of _Sammlung Schloss Rohoncz_, Exh. cat. Neue Pinakothek, Munich, 1930, in the possession of Mrs. Walter Feilchenfeldt, Sr., Zurich, per letter of 28 January 1989 to John Hand in the object file (1952.5.31.a-c), NGA curatorial files. Colin Eisler, _Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian_, Oxford, 1977: 35, erroneously listed Walter Feilchenfeldt as owning the picture. [4] _Sammlung Schloss Rohoncz_, exh. cat. Neue Pinakothek, Munich, 1930: no. 4. [5] M. Knoedler & Co. Records, accession number 2012.M.54, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: Commission book no. 4, p. 143, no. CA 3724; Sales book no. 16, p. 334 (copies in NGA curatorial files). [6] See The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2289.

See It In Person

National Gallery of Art

Washington, D.C., United States

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More by Albrecht Altdorfer

The Fall of Man [middle panel]

Albrecht Altdorfer·c. 1535

The Rule of Mars [right panel]