Burgkmair, Hans, The Elder

Hans Burgkmair, the Elder, (born 1473, Augsburg [Germany]—died c. 1531), painter and woodcut artist, one of the first German artists to show the influence of the Italian Renaissance.

The son of a painter, he became a member of the painters’ guild in Strasbourg in 1490 and in Augsburg in 1498. Some 700 woodcuts are ascribed to him, including his principal work, a series of 135 prints celebrating the triumphs of the emperor Maximilian I. His works include some of the first chiaroscuro woodcuts, produced from two or more blocks inked with different tones to give gradations of light and shade. His son Hans Burgkmair the Younger (c. 1500–59) collaborated with him to produce a Turnierbuch (“tournament book”) of 52 illustrations. An accomplished fresco painter, the elder Burgkmair decorated the facade of the merchant Jakob Fugger’s house in Augsburg, renowned as the first Italian Renaissance palace in Germany, but the paintings have disappeared. Other Burgkmair frescoes survive in Munich and Vienna.