neighbouring grove. The men unfortunately have not
become young, and retain their grey beards. The picture is of the year
1546, the seventy-fourth of Cranach's age.

ALBERT ALTDORFER was born 1488 at Altdorf, near Landshuth, in Bavaria,
and settled at Ratisbon, where he died 1528. He invested the fantastic
tendency of the time with a poetic feeling--especially in
landscape--and he developed it so as to attain a perfection in this
sort of romantic painting that no other artist had reached. In his later
period he was strongly influenced by Italian art. Altdorfer's principal
work is in the Munich Gallery, and is thus described by Schlegel:--

"It represents the Victory of Alexander the Great over Darius; the
costume is that of the artist's own day, as it would be treated in the
chivalrous poems of the middle ages--man and horse are sheathed in plate
and mail, with surcoats of gold or embroidery; the chamfrons upon the
heads of the horses, the glittering lances and stirrups, and the variety
of the weapons, form altogether a scene of indescribable splendour and
richness.... It is, in truth, a little world on a few square feet of
canvas; the hosts of combatants who advance on all sides against each
other are innumerable, and the view into the background appears
interminable. In the distance is the ocean, with high rocks and a rugged
island between them; ships of war appear in the offing and a whole fleet
of vessels--on the left the moon is setting--on the right the sun
rising--both shining through the opening clouds--a clear and striking
image of the events represented. The armies are arranged in rank and
column without the strange attitudes, contrasts, and distortions
generally exhibited in so-called battle-pieces. How indeed would this
have been possible with such a vast multitude of figures? The whole is
in the plain and severe, or it may be the stiff manner of the old style.
At the same time the character and execution of these little figures is
most masterly and profound. And what variety, what expression there is,
not merely in the character of the single warriors and knights, but in
the hosts themselves! Here crowds of black archers rush down troop after
troop from the mountain with the rage of a foaming torrent; on the
other side high upon the rocks in the far distance a scattered crowd of
flying men are turning round in a defile. The point of the greatest
interest stands out brilliantly from the centre of the whole-