Holbein. Burgkmair. Dürer.

The Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna is dedicating its spring 2024 exhibition to three outstanding pioneers of the Renaissance north of the Alps: Hans Holbein the Elder, Hans Burgkmair and Albrecht Dürer. Experience fascinating works by these artists and discover how Augsburg became the birthplace of the Renaissance in the north.

Hans Holbein the Elder (c.1464–1524) and Hans Burgkmair (1473–1531) are regarded as the most important Augsburg painters of the Early Modern age. In the early sixteenth century, the free imperial city experienced an unparalleled cultural and economic heyday that made it second only to Nuremberg amongst the leading artistic centres of southern Germany. Thanks to its own ancient Roman past and close trading links with northern Italy, it was influenced by the new currents in the art and humanist culture of Italy to a greater degree than any other city north of the Alps. 

The exhibition centres on a selection of the most important panel paintings by Holbein the Elder and Burgkmair, supplemented by a wide range of their drawings and prints and early paintings by the younger Holbein. These masterpieces are seen in conjunction with works by Albrecht Dürer and with selected exhibits by other artists of the early sixteenth century.