Hans Elder
Burgkmayr

German painter and graphic artist of the Renaissance, the head of the Augsburg school. Student of M. Schongauer; was influenced by Northern Italian art. In his best works (the altar of St. John, 1518, altar with Crucifix, 1519, both in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich) the spatial freedom of the composition is organically combined with the expression of feelings and movements. B. — one of the pioneers of colour woodcuts.

German artist Hans Burgkmair is the main representative of the Italianate style in contemporary art the Aug-Burg and plays in this city, in a role similar dürer in Nuremberg. He was one of the first creators of the artistic concept of the Northern Renaissance. The burgkmair learned from his father, Thomas Burgkmair, and then in M. Schongauer in Colmar (CA. 1488). A few years later he went to Italy. In 1498 he became a master of the painters ' Guild of Augsburg. By order of the monastery of St. Catherine's Burgkmair, together with Hans Holbein the Elder takes the cycle of the Roman basilicas ("Basilica St. Peter", 1501; of the "Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano", 1502; the "Basilica of the Holy cross", 1504, Augsburg, State. Gal.). In 1506-1508 the artist once again travels to Italy and lives in Venice and Milan. In his work all the more affirmed the influence of Italian painting, which is manifested in almost the Leonardo's relief forms, in a warm and Golden light ("Madonna and child", 1509-1510, Nuremberg, German NAT. Museum), in a rich Renaissance architecture ("the Coronation of Mary", 1507, Augsburg, State. Gal.). Upon returning home the artist almost completely devoted himself to engraving on wood, and then about 1518-1519 creates two significant altarpieces - "the Altar of St. John" and "the Altar with a Crucifix" (Munich, Alte Pinakothek), in which the grandeur and monumentality of some of the figures are connected with the magnificence of the landscape. In his later works, the Burgkmair departs from the drama, but a strict interpretation and returns to a more congested compositions ("Esther and Ahasuerus", 1528, Munich, Alte Pinakothek). In the portrait genre, the Burgkmair created a few works; a strange and grim "portrait of the artist with his wife" (1529, Vienna Museum of art history) is now attributed to L. Hartnagel. At the same time, he was widely known as a printmaker. In the service of Maximilian I, he made many drawings for engravings, of which a large series "Triumph" (135 boards, engraved by different masters in 1515-1519, but published only in 1796) was a genuine monument to the glory of the Emperor. Besides the engravings for the book "Genealogy,"", Vasconic", "Theuerdank" note is wonderful, chiaroscuro as, for example, in the book "Death lusitanica" that his power and search expression the artist made one of the best engravers of his time.