German art has a distinguished tradition in especially the visual arts, from the earliest known work of figurative art to its current output of contemporary art.
Great musicians are represented in full force, Beethoven, Bach and Händel, Telemann, Mozart and Haydn. And the great writers and philosophers, Goethe and Schiller, Erasmus and Kant. And of course the great inventors and scientists, Gutenberg, Humboldt and Copernicus. The painters from Dürer, Riemenschneider, Altdorfer, Cranach (both father and son) and Holbein, who was court painter to Tudor King Henry VIII to Joseph Beys and most recently Gerhard Richter. The list of German and European artists is literally endless.
German art has played a crucial role in the development of Western art. From the development of Romanesque art, France and Italy began to lead developments for the rest of the Middle Ages, but the production of an increasingly wealthy Germany remained highly important.