Hans Wertinger, 'Summer', about 1525.
London, The National Gallery.

Albrecht Altdorfer, 'Landscape with a Footbridge', about 1518-20.
London, The National Gallery.

Hans Wertinger: 'Summer'

15 July - 26 September 1999
Room 1

Supported by The George Beaumont Group

This display took as its focus the National Gallery's recent acquisition, an atmospheric depiction of the season of summer by the 16th-century German artist Hans Wertinger (c.1465/70 - 1533). One of a cycle of decorative paintings probably made for a domestic interior, and adorned with lavish gilt swags, 'Summer' is peopled with figures both labouring and at leisure, all in the lively calligraphic style which was Wertinger's trademark. In 'Summer' the traditional activities of June, July and August are all combined: we see men harvesting, fishing, shearing sheep and hunting with falcons; a woman carries a basket of fruit on her head, perhaps to take to market.

'Summer' was painted in around 1525, at a period when there was increasing interest in landscape depiction, especially among German artists, although older conventions were still alive. The exhibition explored both the old and the newer approaches to landscape taken by Wertinger and his contemporaries, who included Altdorfer and Cranach.

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