\paperw19995 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 German painter and engraver. \par
He left his fatherÆs workshop in 1498 and went to Vienna, where he painted a number of portraits o
f Humanists, in the form of diptychs linked by the landscape. Even his religious paintings of this period (\i Crucifixion\i0 , 1503, Munich, Alte Pinakothek) have fairy-tale scenery, anticipating the manner of the so-called Danube School. Summoned to Wit
tenberg in 1505, he remained there for the rest of his life as artist to the prince-electors of Saxony, for whom he painted \i Madonnas\i0 and other pictures of sacred subjects with dignified and measured forms (\i Martyrdom of Saint Catherine\i0 , 1506
, Dresden, GemΣldegalerie). He also painted delicate pictures of profane subjects, in particular nudes of suggestive and sensual grace (\i Venus and Cupid\i0 , Rome, Galleria Borghese). The founder of a large workshop, he placed himself at the service of
the ideas of the Reformation, painting numerous portraits of Luther and the Protestant princes (\i Luther and his Wife Katherine von Bora\i0 , Florence, Uffizi) and sacred pictures with a Lutheran message (\i Altar of the Last Supper\i0 , Wittenberg, ca
thedral). He also decorated the hunting lodges of Coburg, Lochau, and Torgau with scenes in a fictitious and archaic style. His many engravings of biblical and profane themes are also of great importance.
