Der Abschied des heiligen Florian

Albrecht Altdorfer worked along the Danube in the early 1500s, and he was one of the first painters in Europe to let landscape take over a picture. This panel, from around 1518, comes from a scattered altarpiece telling the life of Saint Florian, a Roman official in what is now Austria who was thrown off a bridge to drown for refusing to give up his faith. Here he is at the start of that story, taking his leave. The scene is lit as if by moonlight, a strange silvery glow that gives the whole thing the feel of a fairy tale. The trees and the deep wooded distance are painted with such loving care that they nearly crowd the saint out of his own picture. The altarpiece was later broken up, and its panels now sit apart in Florence, Nuremberg and Prague.