Alexander's Battle at Issus is Albrecht Altdorfer's most famous painting (www.wikipedia.org). Painted in 1528-9, the oil painting depicts a young Alexander the Great in 333 BC, at the moment of victory over the Persian army of King Darius III at the Battle of Issus (www.ibiblio.org). Issus was an ancient city in southeastern Asia Minor near modern-day Iskenderum, Turkey, however in the painting it is depicted in the rocky environment of the Alps with German cities in the background (www.ibiblio.org). Altdorfer, painter, printmaker, architect and leading member of the German Danube School of Art, is considered the first true landscape painter and a pioneer of copper etching (www.ibiblio.org). The battle of Alexander and Darius at Issus was part of a series of famous battle scenes commissioned by Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria for his private residence in Munich (Phaidon 409). It passed from the Bavarian royal collection to the Alte Pinakothek in Munich (www.wikipedia.org). Albrecht Altdorfer had an interest in landscape and atmospheric effects, from which he developed a high p...