A Man of Marks

ITH ALL THE attention paid to the Italian Renaissance and the Netherlands’ Northern Renaissance, the Northern Renaissance—the one in Germany—tends to get eclipsed. And when we do turn our eyes toward it, Albrecht Dérer takes center stage, with Lucas Cranach waiting in the wings. But there was another great German artist of the early 16th century, Albrecht Altdorfer (1480–1538), who created amazing works and innovated in several media. While he was hugely influential in both artistic and public life in his home base of Regensburg, in the southern German region of Bavaria, after his death his fame began to decline, although the works themselves were never forgotten. Altdorfer’s name, fame, and artistic genius are now getting full