Danube school

They were among the first painters to regularly use pure landscape painting, and their figures, influenced by Matthias Grünewald, are often highly expressive, if not expressionist.

They show little Italian influence and represent a decisive break with the high finish of Northern Renaissance painting, using a more painterly style that was in many ways ahead of its time.

According to Alfred Stange, Albrecht Altdorfer and Wolf Huber were two of the central most figures within the Danube school.

The river valleys of Austria and western Bavaria have often been praised as the land of the 'beautiful Danube' and not in just song but in the pictorial arts as well.

(Snyder, James) Rugged mountain terrain, towering fir trees and dramatic lighting effects of sunset and dawn are the main characteristics of the Danube school.