The Danube School or Donau School (German: Donauschule or Donaustil) is the name of a circle of painters of the first third of the 16th century in Bavaria and Austria (mainly along the Danube valley). Many also were innovative printmakers, usually in etching. They were among the first painters to regularly use pure landscape painting, and their figures, influenced by Matthias Grünewald, are often highly expressive, if not expressionist. They show little Italian influence, and also represent a decisive break with the high finish of Northern Renaissance painting, using a more painterly style that was in many ways ahead of its time.