Augustin Hirschvogel (1503 – February 1553) was a German artist, mathematician, and
Danube School, a circle of artists in 16th-century Bavaria and Austria
.
Life
He began work in his birthplace,
Protestant Reformation, putting an end to lavish stained glass commissions. Veit the elder's workshop was then being run by Augustin's elder brother Veit; their father died the same year. The younger Hirschvogel had his own workshop by 1530, and soon formed a partnership with the potters Oswald Reinhart and Hanns Nickel.[citation needed
]
Map of Austria, 1542
Hirschvogel left in 1536 for Laibach (the German name for
armorials (for Franz Igelshofer and Christoph Khevenhüller) show that he had been in contact with the Imperial Court of Vienna
Hirschvogel took up etching late in his career, and almost all of his prints date from the last decade of his life, when he resided in Vienna. His etchings, numbering about 300, "reflect his concern with Italianate problems of space, form, and ornament",
Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii (Notes on Muscovite Affairs), and more than 100 Old and New Testament illustrations for the verses of Hungarian reformer Péter Perényi (1502–48). A series of 53 hunting scenes for stained glass are of questionable authorship, but Peters asserts that they are by Hirschvogel. Hirschvogel is credited with the single authentic portrait of the Swiss physician Paracelsus, but this attribution is not certain.[4]
His pen-and-ink landscapes have been described as "strong but light, sure but delicate".[5] The lack of shadow in his landscapes contributes to a tranquil, idyllic mood. Almost 100 drawings are attributed to him; some are likely not his own, but are similar in style to his or Wolf Huber's work. His art shows the influence of Albrecht Dürer, Albrecht Altdorfer, Sebald Beham, Hans Burgkmair, and Agostino del Musi—some of whom had provided his father's workshop with designs.
Notes
^Jane S. Peters, "Augustin Hirschvogel". Grove Art Online.
