Mountain Range

Under a blue sky, rugged blue-green mountains rise in ranks, and from the foreground to the distance a stretch of water like a river or lake winds on. In the distant mountains and in the pale bluish haze are buildings that look like a walled town.

Looking closely, you can see castles, houses, and churches dotting the trees in the foreground as well. Within the grand landscape of mountains and valleys, buildings that suggest the lives of people are painted with very fine strokes, drawing the viewer into the world of the picture.

Whether the "Mountain Range" of the title is a real view has not been established, but it is thought to have been conceived from a view of the Alps. Altdorfer was the greatest painter of the Danube school that flourished in southern Germany and Austria in the early 16th century, and he is also known as the painter of the first pure landscape in the history of Western painting.