Crucifixion

Albrecht Altdorfer, the leading figure of the Danube School and a city architect and councilman of Regensburg, painted this Crucifixion around 1517. Altdorfer revolutionized European landscape painting by making nature itself an expressive protagonist, and even his religious subjects are often dominated by the atmospheric power of their landscape settings. The oil medium allowed for rich tonal transitions and glazed layers of color that created luminous depth impossible with the older tempera technique.

The Crucifixion demonstrates Altdorfer's characteristic integration of dramatic landscape with figural narrative, using expressive color and atmospheric effects to heighten the emotional impact of the Passion scene.