Few paintings can be safely said to be unique and original in as many ways as Albrecht Altdorfer’s “Battle of Issus” (1529). […] The whole scene is viewed from a “bird’s eye” view, offering a vast panorama of the land, the sea and the sky far in the distance. […] Above the battlefield the huge, tumultuous sky and the cosmic, eternal battle between light and darkness makes the human battle below seem petty and almost comically microscopic. On the upper left part of the sky the lunar crescent can be seen while diametrically, in the lower right, where the west is supposed to be, the solar disk struggles with a vortex of clouds. The line of the horizon is obviously curved, denoting the round shape of the earth and making the composition resemble a satellite image: the “Battle of Issus” may thus be not only the first painting ever depicting a curved horizon but also the first painting ever depicting in a cosmic scale at the same time the Earth, the Moon and the Sun.
