Georg Lemberger

A German painter and draughtsman, Lemberger may have been the son of a painter and woodcarver, Simon Lainberger from Nuremberg. This would make him the brother of the woodcarver, Hans Leinberger. Historically he is most noted for having introduced the 16th Century Danube School of painting from Bavaria and Austria to Middle Germany.

The influence of the Danube School can be seen in Lemberger’s elaborate landscapes, imploring a great deal of decorative detail. This style appears in his 1520 work, now at the Uffizi Gallery, Saint George Frees the Princess. Lemberger’s creative zeal is connected some to his brother’s style, which was influenced by the leading artist of the Danube School, Albrecht Altdorfer (1480 – 1538). It is also said that Lemberger may have collaborated with Altdorfer in Regensburg around 1514. He was a creator of woodcut designs and also the actual woodcuts.

More importantly, when he moved to Leipzig and then Magdeburg, Lemberger was regarded as a prominent book illuminator; one of the period’s finest. Of his other works in painting, the Allegory of the Fall and the Redemption, is a highly abstract piece, vibrantly colored with powerful, tenebrous skies, which is a good example of Lemberger’s Protestant subjects.