The Danube School or Donau School (German: Donauschule or Donaustil) is the name of a circle of painters of the first third of the 16th century in Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

 and Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

 (mainly along the Danube

Danube

The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....

 valley). Many also were innovative printmakers, usually in etching

Etching

Etching is the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal...

. They were among the first painters to regularly use pure landscape painting, and their figures, influenced by Matthias Grünewald

Matthias Grünewald

Matthias Grünewald or "Mathis" , "Gothart" or "Neithardt" , , was a German Renaissance painter of religious works, who ignored Renaissance classicism to continue the expressive and intense style of late medieval Central European art into the 16th century.Only ten paintings—several consisting...

, are often highly expressive, if not expressionist. They show little Italian influence, and also represent a decisive break with the high finish of Northern Renaissance

Northern Renaissance

The Northern Renaissance is the term used to describe the Renaissance in northern Europe, or more broadly in Europe outside Italy. Before 1450 Italian Renaissance humanism had little influence outside Italy. From the late 15th century the ideas spread around Europe...

 painting, using a more painterly

Painterly

Painterliness is a translation of the German term , a word popularized by Swiss art historian Heinrich Wölfflin in order to help focus, enrich and standardize the terms being used by art historians of his time to characterize works of art...

 style that was in many ways ahead of its time.

Among its members were:

• Albrecht Altdorfer
  Albrecht Altdorfer
  Albrecht Altdorfer was a German painter, printmaker and architect of the Renaissance era.-Biography:Altdorfer was born in Regensburg or Altdorf around 1480....
  
  
• Wolf Huber
  Wolf Huber
  Wolf Huber was an Austrian painter, printmaker, and architect, a leading member of the Danube School.-Life:Records show that Huber was born in Feldkirch, Vorarlberg, but that by 1515 he was living in Passau. His relationship with other painters of that name living in Feldkirch is unknown,...
  
  
• Jörg Breu the Elder
  Jörg Breu the Elder
  Jörg Breu the Elder , of Augsburg, was a painter of the German Danube school. He was the son of a weaver.He journeyed to Austria and created several multi-panel altarpieces there in 1500–02, such as the Melk Altar . He returned to Augsburg in 1502 where he became a master. He travelled to...
  
  
• Rueland Frueauf the Younger
• Augustin Hirschvogel
  Augustin Hirschvogel
  Augustin Hirschvogel was a German artist, mathematician, and cartographer known primarily for his etchings. His thirty-five small landscape etchings, made between 1545 and 1549, assured him a place in the Danube School, a circle of artists in sixteenth-century Bavaria and Austria.- Life :He began...
  
   (draughtsman, printmaker)

Lucas Cranach the Elder

Lucas Cranach the Elder

Lucas Cranach the Elder , was a German Renaissance painter and printmaker in woodcut and engraving...

was a major influence on, and is occasionally considered a member of, the Danube school.