In the first half of the 15th century the German school departed little from the style it had previously followed, notwithstanding the great change introduced by the brothers Van Eyck into the practice of the painters of the Netherlands, with whom the German painters had always been closely associated. Traces of the influence of the technical improvements of the Van Eycka are indeed aeon in the great work of Stephan Lothener : but the influence becomes much more palpable in the succeeding generation of painters, after the return of Martin Schongaucr, and other Germans, from Brussels, where they had acquired, in the studio of Rogier Van der Weyden, the elder, a full initiation into the method of painting in oil as improved by the Van Eyck& It was, however, in the technics rather than in style that the influence of the Netherland masters was apparent. The old German nobleness of spirit was retained, but divested of some of the uncouth ness of guise with which it had been disfigured ; and its highest examples show great depth of thought and force of imagination, com bined with singular faculty of invention and manipulative dexterity. The principal German painter of this period was Martin Schongauer, or, as he is commonly termed, Martin Schon (b. about 1420, d. 1488), and who was equally famous as a painter and an engraver. Genuine pictures by him are very scarce, those bearing his name being mostly old copies of his engravings. His moat important painting is one of the Virgin in the church of St. Martin at Colmar. A small picture of the Death of the Virgin,' formerly in the collection of the King of Holland, an early work of Schongauer's, is in the National Gallery. Schongauer's pictures exhibit great knowledge of effect and a rich warm tone of colour. His fertility and vigour of imagination, and devotional feeling, are at least equally evident In his engravings one of the wet famous of these, ' St. Anthony tormented by Demon,: 1. said by rueri to have been copied by Michel Angelo. Other noted but inferior German painters of this time were, Frederick Herten (d. 14911; Thomas Burglinen; the elder Holbeln ; Burtholomew%eithloin, In whom the style of Schongstirr Is peen sometimes carried to the rage of nirleature, but 110 Measure mimed to even a higher degree of earnest religious foam,: and Michael Wesidgemuth, of Nurnberg (b. 1434, el. a painter next to Schongauer in originality and power, though very unequal In his winks, and the muter of Albert Parer.
The repreeentatire artist of the German school of the 16th century is Albert Purer (b. at Nurnberg 1471. ii. 1528): one of the groat artists of modern times. In feeling for ideal beauty, Darer is far inferior to his groat Italian contemporaries ; in colour he yields both to the Italian and Flemish painters. But In originality of conception, fertility of imagination, invention, dramatic rower, depth of thought, force of ez1reulan, and accuracy of drawing, he ranks with the highest. lie might. in painting, almost be called the founder of the romantic, as opposed to the aurae school. Sometime his exuberant, almost Inexhaustible, fancy runs into grotesqueness. and his designs aro too often overloaded with fantastic and Insignificant details. In grace and refinement he is very deficient. But there is often a
subtlety as well as boldoeas of thought, which is very impressive when his meaning is fully understood ; and these qualities are even more evident in his engravings and woodcuts than in his paintings-as, for example. in the marvellous designs of ' Death and the Knight' and Ile!ocholds.' The British Museum has a very rich collection of Duress engravings.
The earliest undoubted pictures of Diirera are his portraits of his master, Wohlgemuth, and his own portrait in the Florence Gallery ; among his latest and assuredly his finest works aro the ' Apostles,' now in the Munich Collection. In 1506, Darer visited Venice, hut the Venetian school doe. not seem to have exercised a permanent influence over him, though a' Virgin and Child,' with numerous kneeling figures, painted whilst there for the German Company, and some of the pictures painted shortly after his return to Germany, show that lie appreciated the splendour of Venetian colour. [Danxn, ALLIERT, in Mon. Div.) !taro formed a large school of imitators, many of whose works in the various European collections are attributed to their great master. Among the principal of hie Nurnberg disciples are Hans von Kulmbach, or Hans Wagner (d. 1540). several of whose pictures are in the churches of Nurnberg, while others are iu the Munich and other German galleries; Haus Schauftlein (d. 1540), an artist of considerable imitative skill ; Henry Aldegraver ; Bartel Itch= (b. 1496, d. 1540); Albert Altdorfer, so called from the place of his birth (b. 1488, d. 153S1, the best and most original of all Diirer's scholars : his chief work, "The Victory of Alexander over Darius,' is in the Munich gallery ; and George Penes (b. 1500, d. 1550), who went to Italy and studied under Ilaffaelle, and, while retaining something of the very different manners of both his teachers, displayed enough of his own to secure a place among the original painters of his country.
Saxony about this time produced, in Louis Cranach (b. 1472, d. 1553), a paioter of great and various' original talent, but more realistic in tendency than Darer. Cranach was court painter to the three electors, Frederic the Wise, John the Steadfast, and Frederic the Mageanirnona. lie accompanied the first to the Holy Land in 1493, and shared the prison of the last after the bottle of Muhlberg in 1547. At a later period he was burgomaster of Wittenberg, and a friend of Luther, whose marriage with Catharine von Boca he contri buted to bring about. One of his most celebrated pictures, the ' Crucifixion,' an altar-piece at Weimar, contains portraits of Luther, llelauthon, and Cranach himself. Ilia piEtures are well-coloured, but fanciful, and the features of his females moot singular. Lucas Crianach, the lion, was also a painter, but without much originality ; several of hie pictures are in the churches of Wittenberg. Matthew Gninewald (d. at Ancluilfenburg after 1530) was, after Darer, one of the best and taut original German painters of the first half of the 10th century ; another was Hang Iturgkinair, chief of the Augsburg school (b. 1473, d. 1559), and famous' for pictures of knightly pageants an well u for ecclesiastical subjects: his pictures are very numerous.