Albrecht Altdorfer - Landscape with a footbridge

• Title: Landscape with a footbridge (Landschaft mit einem Steg)
• Artist: Albrecht Altdorfer (1480-1538)
• Date: 1518
• Medium: Oil on parchment
• Dimensions: 41 x 36 cm

“Landscape with a Footbridge” may have been the first pure landscape painted in oil.

Altdorfer placed a large tree at the center of the landscape, making it the central axis and focus within the piece. The footbridge’s horizontality opposes the tree’s verticality.

A mysterious atmostphere exudes- the manoir looks somewhat unkept and the dead tree behind it as well as the large untrimmed tree in the middle parrallel to the manoir adds to this sense of abadonment; the footbridge does not reach the manoir on the left (perhaps a raised drawbridge) and on the other end of the footbridge, there is no apparent way, just Treess which together make you wonder what the bridge is for; and the wild, lush vegetation accentuates the absence of a human in this painting; as if Nature was taking over.