Save the Date for the 2021–22 Gombar/Duychak Lecture with Professor Christopher Wood, Department of German, NYU. His talk is titled: “Altdorfer among the Soldier-folk”Thursday, March 3rd, 2022 | 7:00–8:30pm CT | Conrad A. Elvehjem Building, L140
Abstract: The German Renaissance artist Albrecht Altdorfer (c. 1480–1538), a pioneer in the media of drawing and printmaking, was entrusted with several key components of a gigantic imperial commission: the Triumphal Procession of Maximilian of Habsburg. This paper monument, more than 57 meters in length, depicted a marching army. The last six frames of the procession, designed by Altdorfer, depicted the army’s supply-train: a liminal zone where soldiers mixed with civilian sutlers or provisioners as well as women and children. The iconography is unprecedented—and yet these woodcuts have never been analyzed. The paper attempts to do that, and in particular to interpret an enigmatic decorated banner brandished by one of the soldiers.