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diff --git a/25073.txt b/25073.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..70a8067 --- /dev/null +++ b/25073.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4123 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Overbeck, by J. Beavington Atkinson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Overbeck + +Author: J. Beavington Atkinson + +Release Date: April 15, 2008 [EBook #25073] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OVERBECK *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Tim Buck and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + _ILLUSTRATED BIOGRAPHIES OF + THE GREAT ARTISTS._ + + + JOHANN FRIEDRICH OVERBECK. + + + + + ILLUSTRATED BIOGRAPHIES OF THE GREAT ARTISTS. + +_The following volumes, each illustrated with from 14 to 20 Engravings, +are now ready, price 3s. 6d. Those marked with an asterisk are 2s. 6d._ + + + GIOTTO. By HARRY QUILTER, M.A. + FRA ANGELICO. By C. M. PHILLIMORE. + FRA BARTOLOMMEO AND ANDREA DEL SARTO. By LEADER SCOTT. + MANTEGNA AND FRANCIA. By JULIA CARTWRIGHT. + GHIBERTI AND DONATELLO.* By LEADER SCOTT. + LUCA DELLA ROBBIA.* By LEADER SCOTT. [_Nearly ready._ + LEONARDO DA VINCI. By Dr. J. PAUL RICHTER. + MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI. By CHARLES CLEMENT. + RAPHAEL. By N. D'ANVERS. + TITIAN. By R. F. HEATH, M.A. + TINTORETTO. By W. R. OSLER. + CORREGGIO.* By M. COMPTON HEATON. + VELAZQUEZ. By E. STOWE, M.A. + MURILLO.* By ELLEN E. MINOR. + + ALBRECHT DURER. By R. F. HEATH, M.A. + THE LITTLE MASTERS OF GERMANY. By W. B. SCOTT. + HANS HOLBEIN. By JOSEPH CUNDALL. + OVERBECK. By J. BEAVINGTON ATKINSON. + REMBRANDT. By J. W. MOLLETT, B.A. + RUBENS. By C. W. KETT, M.A. + VAN DYCK AND HALS. By P. R. HEAD, B.A. + FIGURE PAINTERS OF HOLLAND. By LORD RONALD GOWER, F.S.A. + + CLAUDE LORRAIN.* By OWEN J. DULLEA. [_In preparation._ + WATTEAU.* By J. W. MOLLETT, B.A. [_In preparation._ + VERNET AND DELAROCHE. By J. RUUTZ REES. + ROUSSEAU AND MILLET. BY W. E. HENLEY. [_In preparation._ + MEISSONIER.* By J. W. MOLLETT, B.A. + + SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. By F. S. PULLING, M.A. + WILLIAM HOGARTH. By AUSTIN DOBSON. + GAINSBOROUGH AND CONSTABLE. By G. BROCK-ARNOLD, M.A. + ROMNEY AND LAWRENCE.* By LORD RONALD GOWER, F.S.A. + TURNER. By COSMO MONKHOUSE. + SIR DAVID WILKIE. By J. W. MOLLETT, B.A. + CROME AND THE NORWICH SCHOOL.* By C. MONKHOUSE. [_Preparing._ + SIR EDWIN LANDSEER. By F. G. STEPHENS. + + + + + [Illustration: JOHANN FRIEDRICH OVERBECK.] + + + + + _"The whole world without Art would be one great wilderness."_ + + OVERBECK + + BY J. BEAVINGTON ATKINSON + AUTHOR OF + 'SCHOOLS OF MODERN ART IN GERMANY,' ETC. + + NEW YORK + SCRIBNER AND WELFORD + LONDON + SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON + 1882. + + + + + TO + THE RIGHT HONOURABLE + A. J. BERESFORD HOPE, ESQ., + M.P., LL.D., + THE KIND FRIEND OF ARTISTS, + THE FERVENT UPHOLDER OF CHRISTIAN ART, + + + This Life + OF + THE CHRISTIAN PAINTER J. FRIEDRICH OVERBECK + IS + _RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED_ + BY + THE AUTHOR. + + + + + PREFACE. + + +In offering to the public the first complete biography yet attempted of +the painter Overbeck, I wish to give a few words in explanation. The +task has been far from easy: the materials, though the reverse of +scanty, are scattered: reminiscences of the artist and criticisms on his +works lie as fragments dispersed over the current literature of Germany. +My endeavour has been to fill in vacuities, to thread together a +consistent and connected narrative, and thus, so far as I have been +able, to present a true and lucid history. + +My duty has been all the more anxious from the unusual complexity of the +pictorial products falling under review. The scenes are laid amid the +battle of the schools: the periods bring into prominence conflicts +between classic, romantic, and naturalistic styles. The art of Overbeck +was rooted in the olden times, yet in some degree it became quickened by +contact with present life, and took also a personal aspect from the +painter's inner self. The great pictures and the numberless drawings +thus evolved over a space of more than half a century, and here +described from my own knowledge, raise interesting and intricate +questions on which the world remains divided. My care has been to give a +just estimate of these exceptional art manifestations. + +Also enter into the art, through the life, conflicts of religious +creeds, strifes between Protestantism and Catholicism, between +Platonism, Mysticism, and Rationalism. In dealing with such delicate and +serious topics I have avoided all controversy, and have ventured only on +the simplest and briefest exposition. My effort has been to state the +case fairly all round, to maintain an even balance, and, above all, to +place the reader, whatever may chance to be his creed or art school, in +a position to form a true judgment. + +Likewise fairly to appreciate the artist, it is needful rightly to +comprehend the man. And here, again, perplexities arise from unwonted +combinations. The character is one of the noblest and purest, and yet it +is beset with peculiar infirmities. The portrait offered in these pages +is, I trust, true and individual, toned down into unity, and yet not +left cold or colourless. Such negation would, indeed, do injustice to my +own feelings. For among the cherished recollections of past days are my +visits to Overbeck's studio, stretching over a period of twenty years: I +learned to revere the master and to love his works, and I trust no word +in this little volume may lessen the respect due to an honoured name. + + J. B. A. + +KENSINGTON, + _May, 1882._ + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + + CHAPTER I. + + LUBECK--VIENNA. + +Birth and Parentage--Early Days in Lubeck--The Artist's learned and +religious Ancestry--His Father Doctor of Laws and Burgomaster--Chart of +the Family--Creed for a Purist Painter--Young Overbeck leaves Lubeck for +Vienna: his Studies in the Academy--Decadence of Art in the Austrian +Capital--Rise of the German Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood--Conflict between +the Old Party and the New--Overbeck and his Friends expelled from the +Academy--He resolves to make Christian Art the Vocation of his +Life--Leaves Vienna for Rome Page 1 + + + CHAPTER II. + + ROME--THE GERMAN BROTHERHOOD. + +Overbeck and his brother Artists reach Rome--The German Colony settle in +the Convent of Sant' Isidore--Inspiring surroundings of Art and +Nature--Modes of Study and of Life--Overbeck "a Treasury of Art and +Poetry, a saintly Man"--"The New-Old School," "the Nazarites," provoke +opposition and ridicule--State of Art in Rome: Classic, Romantic, +Christian--First Commission: early Drawings and Pictures--Exhibition in +Palazzo Caffarelli--Overbeck and his Friends join the Roman Catholic +Church--Reasons assigned--Literary circle: Niebuhr, Bunsen, and +Friedrich Schlegel--Frescoes by Overbeck, Cornelius, Veit, and Schadow +in the Casa Bartholdi and the Villa Massimo 19 + + + CHAPTER III. + + ROME--GERMANY. + +Overbeck marries, two children born--His position in "Monumental +Painting"--Fresco, "The Vision of St. Francis" at Assisi--Inclinations +towards Monastic Life--Journey to Germany--Triumphal Entry into +Munich--The Guest of Cornelius--Pictures in the New +Pinakathek--Correspondence and friendship with Fraulein Emilie +Linder--Visits to Heidelberg, Frankfort, Cologne, and Dusseldorf--Return +to Rome--Present at the opening of Raphael's Tomb in the Pantheon--Views +of Art become more dogmatic and sacerdotal--Three important easel +pictures: "Christ's Agony in the Garden," at Hamburg; "The Marriage of +the Virgin," in Count Raczynski's Gallery, Berlin; "The Triumph of +Religion in the Arts," Frankfort--The Painter's explanatory disquisition +on the last--His habits of work, personal aspect and character 48 + + + CHAPTER IV. + + LATE WORKS--CONCLUSION--THE PAINTER AND HIS ART. + +Death of Son--Pictures: "The Pieta," in Lubeck; "The Incredulity of St. +Thomas," in the possession of Mr. Beresford Hope--Death of Wife--"The +Assumption of the Madonna," Cologne Cathedral--Second visit to +Germany--Fete in Cologne--Return to Rome--Studio in Garden House on the +Esquiline Hill--Cartoons and Water-colour Drawings, "The Via +Crucis"--Cartoons and Tempera Drawings, "The Seven +Sacraments"--Commissions from Pius IX., his Portrait, Picture for +Quirinal Palace: the Pope's Visit to the Studio--Portraits of the Artist +by various hands--Overbeck's mental habits: his extraordinary +memory--Modes of Study and of Work--Form--Composition--Colour--The +relation of his Art to nature, tradition, and personal +character--Pecuniary rewards--Influence over the contemporary Schools of +Europe--Closing scenes--Death and Burial 76 + +CHRONOLOGY 109 + +INDEX 111 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + + +PORTRAIT OF OVERBECK _Frontispiece._ + + PAGE + +THE HOLY FAMILY 2 + +THE NAMING OF ST. JOHN 18 + +CHRIST IN THE TEMPLE 24 + +CHRIST BLESSING LITTLE CHILDREN 28 + +THE CALLING OF ST. JAMES AND ST. JOHN 48 + +CHRIST'S ENTRY INTO JERUSALEM 58 + +CHRIST HEALING THE SICK 70 + +CHRIST FALLING UNDER THE CROSS 76 + +THE ENTOMBMENT 86 + +THE RESURRECTION 94 + +THE CROSS MARKING OVERBECK'S TOMB _Finis._ + + + + + Chart of the Overbeck Family. + + CASPAR OVERBECK, + Merchant, Religious Refugee. + | + CHRISTOPH OVERBECK, Pastor. + | + CASPAR NIKOLAS OVERBECK, D. 1752, Pastor. + | + Total number of Children 8 sons and 6 daughters: + 2 sons and 4 daughters died in childhood. + ____________________________________________|_______________________________________ +| | | | | | | +Johann Levin GEORGE CHRISTIAN OVERBECK, Johann Gottfried August Two +Adolph, Conrad, B. 1713, D. 1786, Daniel, Ferdinand, Friedrich, Daughters +B. 1706, B. 1712, Doctor of Laws. B. 1715, B. 1717, B. 1719, who grew to +Pastor. Pastor. | D. 1802, Apothecary. School womanhood. + | Doctor of Teacher. + | Theology, &c. + _____________________|_________________________________________________ + | | | + Conrad, CHRISTIAN ADOLPH OVERBECK, Johann George, + Died at Riga, B. 1755, M. 1781, D. 1821. D. 1819, + Merchant. Doctor of Laws, Syndic, Burgermeister of Lubeck, &c. Pastor. + | + 4 sons and 2 daughters: one son died in childhood. + _________________________________|________________________________________ + | | | | | +Christian Gerhard, Johannes, JOHANN FRIEDRICH OVERBECK, Frau Charlotte Frau Elizabeth +B. 1784, D. 1846, D. 1830, B. in Lubeck 1789, M. 1819, Leithoff, Meyer, +Judge, Lubeck. Merchant. D. in Rome 1869 deceased. deceased. + | | The Painter | +Christian Theodore, | | Frau Harms, +B. 1818, D. 1880, | | Lubeck, +Doctor, Senator; | |__________________ living. +left no children. | | | + _____________________|_________________ ____|_________________ + | | | | | | +Johannes, Gustav, Arnold, Frau Rath ALFONS MARIA, Daughter of the +Professor, Dusseldorf, Dusseldorf, Reuleaux, Son of the Painter, Painter: died +Doctor, living. living. Berlin, B. 1822, D. 1840. in childhood. +Archaeologist, living. +Leipzig, +living. + + + + + OVERBECK. + + CHAPTER I. + + LUBECK--VIENNA. + + +Johann Friedrich Overbeck was born, as a tablet on his father's house +records, in Lubeck on the 4th of July, 1789. Among his ancestors were +Doctors of Law and Evangelical Pastors. His parents were good +Protestants; his father was Burgomaster in the ancient city. Seldom has +a life been so nicely preordained as that of the young religious +painter. The light of his coming did not shine, as commonly supposed, +out of surrounding darkness. A visit to his birth-place, expressly made +for this memoir, soon showed me that Overbeck, from his youth upwards, +had been tenderly cared for; that he received a classic education; that +his mind was brought under moral and religious discipline; in short, +that the rich harvest of later years had found its seed-time here within +the family home in Lubeck. + +The old house in which Overbeck was born has unfortunately, within the +last few years, been modernised, but the original medallion relief of +the painter's head, life-size, is built into the new facade, and the +former structure can be accurately ascertained as well from the designs +of the adjoining tenements as from the living testimony of the +neighbours.[1] The Overbeck mansion stood in the Konig Strasse, a +principal thoroughfare in the heart of an old city which may not inaptly +be designated the Nuremberg of Northern Germany. It is not difficult +here on the spot to picture the life of the painter while yet in his +teens. The historic town of Lubeck had enjoyed a signal political, +commercial and artistic epoch. As the head of the Hanseatic League, it +rose to unexampled prosperity. Deputies from eighty confederate +municipalities assembled in the audience-chamber of the Rathhaus; +fortifications, walls and gateways were reared for defence, and merchant +princes made their opulence and love of ostentation conspicuous in +dwellings of imposing and picturesque design; thus pointed gables, +high-pitched overhanging roofs, stamp with mediaeval character the +present streets. Then, too, were founded rich ecclesiastical +establishments; then was built the cathedral, containing among other +treasures matchless brasses, a unique rood-loft, and a double triptych, +the masterpiece of Memling. This sacred work made a deep impression on +young Overbeck, and is known to have given a direction to his art. About +the same period was also reared the Marien Kirche, enriched with bronze +sacrament-house, old German triptychs and fine painted glass. This is +the church in which the painter's father, as Burgomaster, had a +distinguished stall, elaborately carved; and now, on visiting the spot, +I find appropriately among the treasures two chefs-d'oeuvre which the +son affectionately wrought for the city of his birth. These churches are +Protestant, but fortunately the worst sign of the Reformation is +whitewash, and so the relics of the past are reverently conserved, and +here in Lubeck, as in Nuremberg, the Madonna still holds her honoured +niche, and the saints yet shine from out the painted window, even as in +after-years the selfsame characters appeared on the canvases of +Overbeck. Amid associations thus sacred, encircled by a family addicted +to learning and piety, to poetry and art, was the tranquil spirit of the +young painter led into meditative paths; and as I took my evening walk +at the setting of the sun by the side of the wooded river, under shadow +of the old gateways and churches, it was not very hard to realize how +the love of nature and of art grew up in the mind of the young student, +and how this city of the past proved a fitting prelude to a noble +life-work which set as its goal the revival of what was best and most +beautiful in the olden times. + +The family of Overbeck had been for generations preeminent for learning +and piety, and biographers have scarcely sufficiently taken into account +either the Classic or the Christian inheritance of the painter. +Religious teaching and living came by long lineal descent (see Family +Chart on page xvi.): the great, great, great grandfather, Caspar +Overbeck, was a religious refugee; the next in succession, Christoph, +was a Protestant pastor; and to the same sacred calling belonged his +son, Caspar Nikolas, who lived into the middle of the last century. +After comes the grandfather, George Christian, Doctor of Laws; and among +collaterals signally shines the great-uncle, Johann Daniel Overbeck +(died 1802, aged 88);[2] this memorable man was Doctor of Theology, +Rector of the Lubeck Gymnasium, and a voluminous writer; he published +thirty or more treatises; among the number are 'The Spirit of Religion,' +'Grounds of Agreement in Religion through the Reason and the +Understanding;' also discourses on St. Peter, St. Paul, and Luther. +Facility of pen runs through the family. Two other great-uncles, Johann +Adolph and Levin Conrad Overbeck, brothers of the Doctor of Theology, +were Pastors: furthermore must not be forgotten the uncle, Johann George +(brother of the Burgomaster), who lived till 1819, and is described as a +faithful untiring pastor to an evangelical congregation, who offered his +life a willing sacrifice. "Duty" might be the watch-word of all who bear +the name of Overbeck. Lastly, and not least, appears the pious, learned, +and aesthetic father, Christian Adolph. Though not in holy orders, he +concerned himself variously with religion in the wide and vital sense of +the word, holding it a divine presence, the rule of life, and the +inspirer of all noble work. I should judge he was not dogmatic in creed, +nor rigid in ceremonial. He was philosophic, but had too much heart to +be a rationalist; too much imagination for an anti-supernaturalist. He +was a mystic pietist; religion blending with poetry coloured his whole +mind; revelation, nature, and art, were for him one and indivisible. And +this I believe to have been the mental state of the son while yet under +the parental roof. The sequel will show a change; the incertitude of +speculation could not be sustained, and so anchorage was sought within +an "Infallible Church." Yet for the right reading of a character +curiously subtle and complex, it is needful to realise the fact that the +seeds sown in the homestead were never uprooted, that it was, indeed, +the old stock which sustained the new grafting, and that, to the last, a +poetic mysticism dwelt in the chambers of the artist's mind. And as was +the tree so were the fruits; sprung from a family of preachers, the +painter became an evangelist in his art. + +The father, Dr. Christian Adolph Overbeck, as the formative type of the +son, merits a further word.[3] If not quite a genius, he was the model +of a scholar and a gentleman; besides being Burgomaster in the city of +his birth, he was Doctor of Laws, Syndic of the Cathedral Chapter, and +served in important political missions to Paris and St. Petersburg. He +is described "Musis Amicus";[4] and not only the friend of poesy, he was +a poet himself, and by virtue of the duality habitual to his mind +dedicated his pen with singular impartiality to Christ and Apollo; one +volume of verses being entitled 'Anacreon and Sappho,' another, +containing a poem, on 'The Love of God.' These products rise somewhat +above the level of respectable mediocrity, yet they have not escaped the +stigma of platitudes. Goethe, however, did not disdain to make +respectful mention of the poet. The painter inherited in some small +degree the paternal gift; he accompanied with verses the engraved and +published drawings, _Jesus as a Child in the House at Nazareth_. By the +father I have also before me a "new edition," published 1831, of a +collection entitled 'Frizchens Lieder,'[5] so called because penned for +the benefit of the youthful Frederick. The preface makes mention of "my +little Frizchen" thus:--"It were better had he been an angel, but he is +just a human child:" then, facetiously, it is added, "he is less ideal +than saucy and conceited." Those who like myself knew only the solemnity +of the painter in advanced years have a difficulty in supposing in the +child such traits compatible. These songs of the domestic affections +were set to music; the father, as a dilettante complete, cultivated all +the harmonies whether of thought, form, or sound; the home was musical. + +The family life composes into a placid, homelike picture. The parents, +though well to do, were far from affluent. The stipends of the busy +Burgomaster and Syndic were small, and he remained comparatively poor. +At the age of twenty-six he married a young widow with money and one +daughter, and domestic cares necessarily thickened with the birth of six +additional children, two daughters and four sons, of whom Frederick was +the youngest. The mother, we are told, was beloved and honoured, and in +addition to ordinary domestic duties, diligently assisted her children +in the preparation of their school lessons; moreover it is expressly +stated that her fortune contributed largely to the household expenses. +The would-be artist could not be considered unfortunate in his worldly +condition; he entered on life removed equally from the extremes of +riches or poverty; his parents were sufficiently well off to make it +possible for him to gratify his tastes in the choice of a profession, +while he was always under such pressure as to render it imperative that +he should put out his full powers. His education within the limits of a +provincial town was liberal; the father kept himself and his household +quiet, student-like, and sequestered from the dissipation of society, +and so all the better could be cultivated the budding faculties of his +offspring. When the children were sufficiently advanced he joined with +other parents in engaging a qualified tutor, and so formed a special +class or superior school. With affection was watched the inclination +towards art of the youngest son, and anxiety lessened as the faculty +strongly declared itself, for above all was dreaded "mediocrity as the +deadly sin of artists." The father held that for success in art as a +profession three conditions were essential; classic training, nobility +of mind, and technical skill. And so in each day the foremost place was +assigned to classic studies. As to the formation of character, religion +stood as the corner-stone, and the maxim for the daily life was "love in +a pure mind." This axiom sounds to me as the key-note to the painter's +lifelong art--an art loving in spirit and kept unspotted from the world. +But the father and son differed in this--that the one was eclectic, the +other exclusive. The father, with the wide toleration of a +poet-philosopher, believed in the possibility of harmoniously combining +styles, Classic, Romantic, and Christian. His views may be judged from +the following: + + + _The Father's Monition to study the Classics._ + +With joy I see you constant in the study of the ancients. To the Greeks +and old Romans was it given to stand as the everlasting lawgivers of the +beautiful. Well for you that you read the classics: above all, acquaint +yourself with the glorious forerunner, Homer, of whom almost every line +is a picture. Homer in the right chamber of the heart, and the Bible in +the left--or _vice-versa_--in this way, it seems to me, you cannot go +far astray. + + + _Creed for a Purist Painter._ + +The artist's and poet's mind should be as a spotless mirror: his heart +must be pure and pious, at one with God and all mankind. The path to the +holy Temple of Art lies apart from the world, and the painter will go on +his way all the more unassailed if he stand aloof from the temptations +of the senses. And if the artist's mind be a temple, then should find +place therein only the figures of saints and the semblances of holy +things; and even in profane representations a heavenly spirit should +reign. The mind is raised by the contemplation of the master-works of +genius, thus art reaches the highest summit. + +It is not to be supposed that the youth while in Lubeck reached the +father's ideal; but within a stone's throw of the house lay a Gymnasium, +including a Drawing School of which the great uncle, Dr. Johann Daniel +Overbeck, had been head master. Here, on the spot, I am told the nephew +received from a certain Professor Federau instruction in art, and I have +before me a drawing, the earliest that has come to my knowledge, which +proves that the pupil was at least painstaking. The subject, in +accordance with the father's precept, is Homeric, the well-known meeting +of Ulysses and Telemachus.[6] After the prevailing manner of the period, +the style is classic, according to the French school of David, and a +Greek portico appropriately finds a place in the background. Young +Overbeck discovered in the sequel how much he had to learn, and to +unlearn; he closed Homer to open his Bible. + +The time came for a change in the scene of action, the art resources of +a small provincial town were exhausted, and the necessity arose for +thorough academic training elsewhere. The choice in those days was not +extended, and after due consideration the election fell in favour of +Vienna. Accordingly, in March, 1806, at the age of seventeen, young +Overbeck left Lubeck. The home-parting was tender, and might have been +heart-rending could the future have been read. Never were son and +parents to meet again. Frederick in sundry years, when full of honours, +visited Germany, but he seemed to shrink from a return to the scenes of +his youth; change in religion may have made contact painful. Yet we are +told that closest communication was kept up by constant correspondence; +that the father affectionately watched his son's illustrious career and +read with lively satisfaction all announcements in the public journals. +The mother died in 1820, the father a year after: for forty years they +had been lovingly united. I have visited the retired "God's-acre," +beyond the gates, removed from the noisy traffic of the town, and not +without difficulty discovered the grave of father and mother. So dense +was the overgrowth of years, that not a letter on the massive stone +could be seen; but the old man of the place, tearing away the thick +mantle of ivy, revealed the words, "Here rest in God Elizabeth Overbeck, +and Christian Adolph Overbeck, Burgomaster." + +On reaching Vienna, the super-sensuous painter did not find a bed of +roses: his tastes were fastidious, his habits exclusive, his aspirations +impracticable. Of course his art remained as yet unremunerative; thus +his means were scanty, and the friends he might have hoped to make +turned out enemies. And it cannot be denied that the state of things in +Vienna was enough to discourage and disgust an earnest, truth-seeking +student. The Academy into which the Christian artist entered was under +the direction of Friedrich Fuger, a painter of the French type, not +without renown, but given over to the service of Jupiter, Prometheus, +and Venus, and when he chanced to turn to sacred subjects, such as _The +Death of Abel_ and _The Reading Magdalen_, affectation and empty +pretence were his resource. I have seldom seen works more contemptible. +Overbeck was in despair, and wrote to a friend that he had fallen among +a vulgar set, that every better feeling, every noble thought, was +suppressed within the Academy, and that, losing all faith in humanity +and in art, he turned inwardly on himself. This transcendental strain, I +cannot but think, came in some measure from the conceit incident to +youth; self-complaisancy was certainly a habit of mind which the painter +persistently cultivated as a virtue. + +Four years' work within an organised academy could not be otherwise than +a gain to a tyro who had everything to learn. Director Fuger was at +least thoroughly trained; talent and industry had early won him the +distinction of pensioner to Rome, and he subsequently executed important +frescoes in Naples, which obtain honourable mention in the history of +the times. His school might be bad, but still it was a school; and the +fact cannot be controverted that Overbeck issued from it an artist. He +learnt what his father had laid down as essential to success, drawing, +composition, technique, and his advance was such, that while in Vienna +he commenced, and in part painted, _Christ's Entry into Jerusalem_, a +prized possession to this day in the Marien Kirche, Lubeck. Moreover, I +am inclined to think that under Fuger he was grounded in the art of +wall-painting, not only as a manipulative method, but as a system of +composition and decoration; otherwise it is hard to understand how, +shortly after arriving in Rome, he knew more about fresco than the +Italians themselves. Overbeck and his master, however, became all the +more irreconcilable because the discords lay less in the letter than in +the spirit. + +In order to realise Overbeck's artistic and mental difficulties here in +Vienna, and afterwards in Rome, it may be well in fewest words to +indicate the perplexed state of things in Germany generally--a wide +theme on which volumes have been written. We have to consider that +Europe had suffered under the throes of the great French Revolution, and +that then followed the galling despotism of Napoleon. Art and literature +lay frozen and paralysed, and Overbeck in Lubeck and Vienna, like +Cornelius in Dusseldorf, found in tyrannous sway the pseudo-classic +school of the French David, cold as marble, rigid as petrifaction, +spasmodic as a galvanised muscle. But the Germans, especially the more +intellectual sort, smarting under the yoke, were all the while gathering +strength to reclaim nationality as their birthright. The reaction came +through the romantic movement, otherwise the revival of the poetry and +the art of the Middle Ages. Overbeck fell under the influence: in his +Lubeck home he read Tieck's 'Phantasies on Art,' and thirsted for the +regeneration drawing near. In Rome the spell heightened; thinkers such +as Frederick Schlegel brought over proselytes, and the painter's early +frescoes from Tasso's 'Jerusalem Delivered,' came as the specific +products of the new era. But the School of Romance wore two aspects; the +one, Poetic and Chivalrous; the other expressly Christian; and Overbeck +was not content to exchange Homer and Virgil for Dante and Tasso, he +turned from the age of Pericles and Augustus to the nativity of Christ. +And it seemed to him that the pure spring of Christian Art had, not only +in Vienna but throughout Europe, been for long diverted and corrupted, +and so he sought out afresh the living source, and casting on one side +his contemporaries, took for his guides the pre-Raphaelite masters. Such +is the relation in which he stands to the Romantic movement. + +But the election made in favour of an art born of Christianity proved +for Overbeck the severer conflict, because Germany, in the generation +scarcely passed away, had experienced a studious classic revival under +the critic Winckelmann and the painters Mengs and Carstens. Goethe, too, +a tyrant in power, had thrown his weight into the classic scale, and, +much to the chagrin of the young painter, declared that the highest +Christian Art was but the perfecting of humanity. Moreover, classicism +had been brought within the painter's home by a five years' sojourn in +Lubeck of Carstens, the Flaxman of Germany. The father befriended the +poor artist, and being well-read in Greek and Roman authors, supplied +him, among other needs, with ideas for his classic compositions. I deem +these facts should be duly considered; it is wholly false to ignore the +presence of a classic element in the Christian Art of Overbeck; and just +as the purest religious painters of Italy borrowed from the Pagans, so +the great Christian Artist of our times culled from the antique all he +could assimilate. It is clear to me, judging from the internal evidence +of his works, that as a student Overbeck went through the usual course +of drawing from the plaster cast. Many are the passages in his +compositions which might be quoted in point, particularly Biblical +incidents, such as the _Expulsion from Paradise_, wherein appear +undraped figures. Here are seen to advantage the generic form, the +typical beauty, the harmony of line, the symmetry, which distinguish the +Classic from the Gothic. Furthermore, Overbeck from first to last +eschewed the dress actually worn in the Holy Land, and deliberately +draped Christ and the Apostles as Greek sages and Roman senators. I +believe in so doing he was on the whole wise, his motive being to remove +his characters from the sphere of common life; even for him, the most +single-minded of men, art was a compromise: but while borrowing thus +largely both in figure and costume from the Classic, it were vain to +contend that his creations had an exclusively Christian origin. I may +add that I do not think the controversy lies so much between religions +as between historic Schools of Art. Overbeck was so much the artist +that, like Raphael, he made beauty wherever extant his own, only caring +that whatever was taken from the Pagan should be baptized with the +Christian spirit. Thus much indeed is confessed in his explanatory text +to his master-work the _Triumph of Religion in the Arts_. Therefore in +quoting his own words the subject may fairly be allowed to drop: he +writes: "Although heathenism, as such, should be looked upon by the +Christian painter with decided disdain, yet the arts as well as the +literature of the ancients may be turned to advantage, as the children +of Israel employed the gold and silver vessels which they brought with +them out of Egypt in the service of the true God in His Temple, after +melting them down and consecrating them anew." + +The much abused Director Fuger was the champion, as we have seen, of +hybrid classicism, hence the hostility between master and pupil. The +precise attitude assumed by the contending parties it is not very easy +to define; but that there were faults on both sides may easily be +conceded; that each was in extreme is also evident, and that Overbeck +was the last man to yield an inch or to meet half way is equally +certain. The fatal conflict broke out in differences as to the modes of +study: of the Academy we should now say that it was conventional, wedded +to false methods, in short, that it had wholly lost the right road in +the devious paths of decadence. The young innovators, not choosing to +conform, assumed a defiant position analogous to, though not identical +with, that taken half a century later by our English pre-Raphaelite +brethren. The study of the early masters in the royal collection they +preferred to the routine of the Academy; thus Durer and Perugino were +held up in challenge to Correggio and Rubens, the idols of the day. Then +the discord was equally violent as to the right mode of studying nature. +The charge made against the German pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was that +they dealt with the life-model crudely and inartistically; on the +contrary, Overbeck and his adherents declared that they sought for +nothing else than truth, only they held that nature should not be +studied superficially, but with the end of deciphering her hidden +meanings. The human body they looked on as a temple, the face they read +as the mirror of the mind. All this, and much more besides, though then +a novelty, is now an old story; the doctrine that the bodily form is +moulded on the spiritual being, the speculations concerning the +relations between the "objective" and the "subjective," the outward and +the inward, the correspondence between the world of sense and the world +of thought, have one and all taken definite place in the history of +mental philosophy. We have here fully to realise that Overbeck had +breathed the atmosphere of mystic spiritualism in Lubeck; hence his +entrance into "spiritual art," hence his "soul pictures." His mind being +thus sublimated, he looked down upon the Viennese Academicians as common +and unclean; a rupture naturally ensued, and he and his companions being +in the minority, were with a strong hand, and with little ceremony, +expelled from the classes. The blow for the moment seemed overwhelming, +yet it brought salvation. Had Overbeck remained chained to the Academy, +art through him would not have seen a new birth. His course became +clear: he quitted Vienna for Rome, the city of his desire. + +In the fourth and last year of the painter's apprenticeship in the +Austrian capital, was begun a really arduous composition, _Christ's +Entry into Jerusalem_.[7] The picture is of the utmost import as +affording the only evidence of the artist's attainments in Vienna. In +the first place to be remarked is the striking fact that not a vestige +remains of the French school of David, or of the showy masters of the +Italian decadence; the work, indeed, might have been designed as a +protest against the Viennese Academy, and as a justification of the +painter's revolt. The style adopted is conjointly that of the Italian +pre-Raphaelite and of the early German and Flemish masters. The +background is built up into a high horizon giving support to the +foreground figures; the colours are deep and lustrous, and so far +contrast favourably with the weaker and cruder tones unfortunately +adopted at a later period. The costume is a deliberate compromise +between the classic and the naturalistic. Nowhere does the artist +venture, as Horace Vernet, on the Bedouin dress. Christ is clothed in a +flowing robe, while the Apostles, as in the compositions of Raphael, +belong less to the Holy Land than to the Roman Forum. This treatment of +draperies was adhered to through all subsequent works, the only change +being further generalisation and a wider departure from naturalism. In +fact it is curious to observe in this early work how much nature enters; +figures and incidents come direct from life, as witness portraits of +contemporaries, groups of little children, young mothers and aged women. +Such passages are happily destitute of what the Viennese academicians +called "style;" they have more of the old German angularity than of "the +Grecian bend." Yet always with Overbeck Beauty is present, only not +thrust in, as by the academicians of the period, in violation of Truth +and Goodness. Also very noteworthy is the impress of thought in the +heads, hands, and attitudes; the painter, as we have seen, came of a +family of thinkers, and the purport of his art was to give expression to +mind. Here again he took as his teachers the early masters, so that +these figures, though more or less studied from nature, might seem to +have walked out from an old panel picture, yet they are more than +complications, they are impressed with the painter's own individuality. +Altogether the work marks not only a starting-point in Overbeck's life, +but a new era in the art of the nineteenth century. + +The composition by lapse of time gains biographic and historic value +through the introduction, in accordance with the practice of the old +masters, of contemporary portraits. The painter has placed among the +spectators his father, in character of Burgomaster, also close by, his +mother, a remarkably shrewd old lady. His wife, memorable as a beauty, +is grouped with the three Marys, and by her side sports the painter's +much-loved son, a boy, palm-branch in hand, rejoicing with the +multitude. Nor are the pilgrim painters in Rome forgotten: Overbeck and +his brother artists, Cornelius and others, appear at respectful +distance, gazing on Christ riding into Jerusalem. + +Overbeck, before quitting Vienna, pretty much determined his vocation: +he resolved to dedicate his life to Christian Art. On the point of +departure, in writing to a friend in Lubeck, he takes a retrospective +view, and also points to the future. He recalls evening walks under the +shade of trees with congenial companions; he remembers earnest +conversations on poetry, painting, and other manifestations of the +beautiful, yet still something remained wanting. True art, he writes, he +had sought in vain: "Oh, I was so full of it, my whole fancy was +possessed by Madonnas and Christs; I bore these impressions about with +me, I cherished them, but nowhere could I find response." In Vienna, as +we have seen, the desire of his soul remained unsatisfied. His conflicts +were painful, but once for all he declares, "I will abide by the Bible; +I elect it as my standing-point." A few friends were like-minded, and +one especially, who had come from Italy, encouraged a pilgrimage to the +land of Christian Art. Accordingly, Overbeck packed up his small worldly +possessions, of which the canvas of _Christ's Entry into Jerusalem_ was +the most considerable, and at length he reached Rome as a haven of rest. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: The Overbeck house, when I sought it out in 1880, was +rebuilt and retenanted; the ground floor happens to be now occupied by a +bookseller and fancy stationer, who sustains intact the Protestant +character of the establishment. In vain I enquired for engravings from +Overbeck; the nearest approach to religious art was a portrait of Luther +in chromo-lithography!] + +[Footnote 2: See 'Leben Herrn Johann Daniel Overbeck, weiland Doctors +der Theologie und Rectors des Lubeckischen Gymnasiums, von einem nahen +Verwandten, und vormaligen Schuler des Verewigten.' Lubeck, 1803.] + +[Footnote 3: See 'Zur Erinnerung an Christian Adolph Overbeck, beider +Rechte Doctor und Burgermeister zu Lubeck.' Lubeck, 1830.] + +[Footnote 4: I have seen in the Public Library, Lubeck, the engraved +portrait inscribed with the above words; the head bears a striking +resemblance to the well-known features of the son: the profile shows a +fine intellectual type, the forehead is ample and overhanging, the +coronal region full, the eye searching and earnest, the upper lip long, +the mouth large and firmly set. The last was not the most beautiful +feature in the painter's remarkable face.] + +[Footnote 5: 'Frizchens Lieder, herausgegeben von Christian Adolph +Overbeck: neue Ausgabe.' Hamburg, Verlag von August Campe, 1831.] + +[Footnote 6: This juvenile exercise, probably only a copy, was given by +young Overbeck to his master, and is now in the Town Library; it is +washed in with Indian ink, measures two feet by one foot nine inches, +and is signed and dated "F. Overbeck, 1805-21 April." The Gymnasium, +like the House, has recently been rebuilt, but the continuity of +learning remains unbroken--boys flock to the school as in the painter's +youth. The adjoining Town Library also contains the original cartoon, +drawn in Rome, for one of the frescoes illustrative of Tasso in the +Villa Massimo, length about ten feet; likewise the cartoon of the Vision +of St. Francis, painted in fresco in Sta. Maria degli Angeli, near +Assisi; the cartoon is about twenty feet long, the figures are +life-size.] + +[Footnote 7: This picture, on canvas, is nearly eight feet long by six +feet high, the figures are about three feet. The 'Lubeckische Blatter' +states that "Overbeck began the work in Vienna in 1809, in the fourth +year of his art study, and there completed the background and the +figures in the middle plane, and that it was taken by him to Rome in +1810." In the course of time the foreground figures were introduced, but +not till 1824 did the picture reach completion. It bears the signature +and date "J. F. Overbeck, 1824." Thus fifteen years elapsed between the +first touch and the last, and some ten further years passed before the +canvas came to the artist's native city. I carefully examined the +painting in the Marien Kirche in October, 1880, and found it in perfect +preservation, the colours unchanged, the surface untouched by time or +restoration. The picture differs from the illustration to these pages.] + + + + + CHAPTER II. + + ROME--THE GERMAN BROTHERHOOD. + + +The biographies of artists, proverbially picturesque, present few scenes +more pleasant to look on than the early years in Rome of the Brotherhood +of German Painters, of whom Overbeck and his friend Cornelius were the +leaders. Exiles in some sort from their native land, they entered Italy +as pilgrims, and were not far from suffering as martyrs. They were +devout, hard-working, and withal poor. They had been drawn from distant +cities to Rome as a common focus, and there they severed themselves from +ignoble present times, and abiding quietly amid ancient monuments and +sacred shrines, sought to make the days of old live anew. So congenial +did Rome prove to Overbeck, that he could hardly be induced to sever +himself from the city or its neighbourhood over a space of more than +fifty years. The task he assigned to himself was arduous: how he went to +work and accomplished his mission I shall try to show. + +Overbeck, in company with his brother artists, Pforr, Vogel and +Hottinger, having in Vienna cast off all fetters, entered Rome as +freemen in 1810. A year later Cornelius, as a young Hercules, came upon +the scene; he had fought his way from Dusseldorf; like Overbeck, he had +found the Academy a burden and a snare, and he betook himself to Italy +for deliverance. Then began that closest friendship between the two +painters which, lasting for more than half a century, was severed only +by death. Cornelius, writing to his friend Mosler, describes the German +Brotherhood in Rome, and adds: "Overbeck from Lubeck is the one who by +the gentleness and nobility of his soul draws all around him; he +inspires them to everything true and beautiful. May be he is the +greatest artist now living: you would be astonished if you could see him +at his work. Yet he is the most humble and retiring of men." If Overbeck +were as a lamb, surely Cornelius was a lion, each indeed supplied what +was lacking in the other. Cornelius in after years said to Rudolf +Lehmann, "I am the man, he is the woman." And it may strike the mind as +a singular coincidence, or rather as a benignant disposition of +Providence, that at sundry turning-points in the world's history, two +men the opposites the one of the other have been conjoined, as if for +the better accomplishment of the work to be done. We may recall, in art, +Raphael and Michelangelo; in religion, St. John and St. Peter, +Melanchthon and Luther; and in philosophy, Plato and Aristotle. At the +risk of pushing the analogy too far, it may be added that Cornelius was +positive as Aristotle, impetuous as St. Peter and Luther, defiant as +Michelangelo; while in contrast, Overbeck shared with Plato idealism, +with St. John love, with Melanchthon gentleness, and with Raphael grace. + +The German colony of pre-Raphaelite painters in Rome grew, and in after +years came accessions almost unintermittingly.[1] Within the first +twelve months were gathered together, as we have seen, Overbeck, +Cornelius, Pforr, Vogel and Hottinger. Soon followed the brothers +Wilhelm and Rudolf Schadow: to these must be added Koch, Wintergerst, +Sutter, Mosler, Veit, Schnorr, Eggers, Platner, and others. Later came +Joseph Fuhrich, who literally worshipped the ground on which Overbeck +stood. Edward Steinle, of a younger generation, was also a bosom friend +of the painter. Later still arrived young zealots from Dusseldorf, where +Schadow had established the renowned school of religious art. The best +known of these disciples are Ernst Deger, Franz Ittenbach, and the +brothers Andreas and Carl Muller. After sitting at the feet of Overbeck +in Rome, it was their privilege to paint the chapel at Remagen on the +Rhine: these frescoes are accepted as among the most beauteous +manifestations of the master's teachings. This brief epitome anticipates +the story of years. In the course of a long life it was the good fortune +of Overbeck to witness the growth into a large tree of the grain of +mustard-seed he had cast into the earth. + +The Brethren found congenial habitation in the old Franciscan convent of +Sant' Isidoro on the Pincian Hill. The picturesque monks having been +turned out by Napoleon, the German colony became tenants at a yearly +rental, and held in quietude the dormitories, also larger rooms which +served as studios, until the fall of the First Empire, when the +monastery once more reverted to the Mendicant Friars, by whom it is +still occupied. A few years since, the Superior of the Order politely +showed the present writer over the ecclesiastical establishment, now, as +formerly, devoted to charitable works. Time has brought little change in +the cells, the refectory, or in the large hall used for religious +teaching. Other rooms, great and small, are ranged round a cloister +enclosing a garden still fragrant with orange-blossoms as in the days of +Overbeck and Cornelius. Here, amid sacred associations and venerable +monuments, did these devoted students build up the new art, and when the +day's work was ended, they mounted at eventide the lofty Belvedere, +commanding a panorama of which, even in Rome, are few equals. From +neighbouring campanili, vesper bells sound a chorus in the bright +Italian sky, and beneath the eye stretches, as a prairie of the old +world, the wide Campagna, spanned by broken viaducts and bounded by the +blue Alban hills. Through the panorama winds the golden Tiber, guarded +by the Castle of St. Angelo and St. Peter's, and around and below lie +Monte Mario, the pine-clad Pincian, the Villa Medici, and the ilex +groves of the Ludovisi. The scene was inspiring, yet not without shadow +of melancholy; the Capitol had fallen into the hands of the stranger, +but the spirit of Dante fired the dauntless young men; they turned from +the present to the past, "imagination restored the empire that had been +lost," and though "calamity afflicted the country, they believed that +God had not forsaken the people." + +Overbeck is known to have been deeply penetrated by the beauties of the +Italian sky and landscape. After sufferance of the rigours of northern +winters, mind and body expanded under the sun of the genial south. In +spring-time came days serene as his own spirit, giving to nature the +re-birth he sought for art; the clear horizon carried thought to a world +beyond; and in the deep blue above floated such clouds as had served the +old pre-Raphaelites with the thrones and footstools of saints and +angels. Overbeck did not, as the masters of the decadence, shroud his +compositions in backgrounds of impenetrable darkness, but flooded the +canvas with the light of the Italian heavens, and like the early +painters, placed holy people in the midst of such beauties of nature as +tranquillise and elevate the mind. And his sympathetic eye was not only +open to scenes which served as distances, he watched in the gardens of +the Roman villas the springing flowers, and made careful studies of +mossy, jewelled foregrounds which served as carpeting for the feet of +his Madonnas. Having turned his back on the Fatherland, his pictures +bear no memories of black forests or frowning Harzburg mountains, and he +became so thoroughly Italianised that he seated Holy Families on the +borders of the Thrasymene Lake, and placed saints within sight of Mount +Soracte! Like all true artists, he painted what he saw; as his +predecessors, he gathered in daily walks the accessories he needed. Fra +Angelico had painted at Fiesole, Francia at Bologna, Perugino at +Perugia, Pinturicchio at Spello and Siena, and each in turn, like +Overbeck, made the surrounding scenery serve as accompaniments to figure +compositions. Nature was to all these painters a great teacher; her +presences were healing powers, and they left out all the storms and +discords, and like our poet Wordsworth, brought her forms and aspects +into harmony with tranquil living. Yet the Brethren from their monastic +abode in Sant' Isidoro looked upon the outer world with sympathies as +diverse as their individual characters. When Cornelius took his walks +abroad, he crossed the Tiber to visit the _Last Judgment_ of +Michelangelo. Overbeck's steps lay in an opposite direction; he passed +by the church of Sta. Maria Maggiore, looked in for the sake of the old +mosaics, and then wended his solitary way to Sta. Croce in Gerusalemme, +to pay his devotions before the frescoes commemorative of the discovery +by St. Helena of the true Cross. Here, in lovely surroundings, nature +blended in unison with art, he looked on the blue hills and the calm +sky, and thanked God Italy was his home. + +The mode of living adopted within the cells and refectory of Sant' +Isidoro naturally savoured of the monastic: it combined appropriately +society with solitude. The habit of the Brethren was to take meals +together at a common table, and to work separately each in his private +painting-room. The refectory served as a common hall for study and for +drawing from the model. The rule obtained in the establishment that the +provisioning and housekeeping should be taken in rotation by each, one +week at a time, and it is said that Overbeck had so far a sense of +creature comforts that he complained that one of the Brothers was +accustomed to put too much water into the broth! On Sundays the work +relaxed or ceased wholly, and the wholesome practice prevailed of +bringing together the products of the week for criticism with the end to +mutual improvement: many grave observations and lively pleasantries +passed from one to the other, Overbeck usually in his modest way acting +the part of mentor. "No one," writes Schadow, "who saw or heard him +speak, could question his purity of motive, his deep insight and +abounding knowledge: he is a treasury of art and poetry and a saintly +man." Overbeck had stoutly defended the adopted course of study which +others condemned. "What," he asked, "has been our crime? It is in great +measure that we have striven after a severe outline, in opposition to +the loose, cloudy, washed-out manner of the day. Is not this an +endeavour after truth?" But such studies, while filling portfolios, +brought no grist to the mill. And the historian Niebuhr, an anxious +friend, confesses that these devoted men "were hard put to it for their +daily bread," yet never has a confraternity of artists more nearly +approached an ideal. No vow was actually taken, the bond was simply +voluntary; thus Overbeck expressly states, "with the greatest concord +among us as to the fundamental principles of art, each goes on his own +way." + +The attitude assumed almost of necessity provoked opposition, even +ridicule. The assumption was made of superiority, the tone grew even +assailant; Correggio, Guido, Guercino, and Domenichino, with all +post-Raphaelites, were denounced, and not only was it declared, "We are +right," but it was added, "You are wrong." The Brethren personally laid +themselves open to attack; they were not free from the affectations of +youth, they made themselves conspicuous by long hair and strange +costume, and through their exclusiveness and sanctity won as their +nickname the epithet of "Nazarites." Other designations were less +characteristic; simply descriptive are such terms as "pre-Raphaelites," +"the new-old School," "the German-Roman artists," "the Church-Romantic +painters," "the German patriotic and religious painters." But all +trivial imputations weigh lightly when set in the balance against solid +work and holy living. The earnest devotees in the long run silenced evil +tongues and won respect and a good name. Niebuhr, ambassador and +historian, by no means a blind apologist, describing the art society of +the day, writes: "The painters in Rome are divided by a broad line of +demarcation into two parties--the one consisting of our friends and +their adherents, the other of the united phalanx of those who are of the +world, a set who intrigue and lie and backbite; they intend there shall +not be light, come what will. The former are exemplary in their lives; +the latter display the old licentiousness which characterised the German +artists in Rome thirty years ago. Happily, at the present moment, the +more talented of the newcomers are ranged on the side of our friends. It +is a hopeful sign that some foreigners, and even Italians, are beginning +to pay attention to their works." Overbeck and his more immediate +associates were indeed, in the best sense of the term, "purists" and +"pietists," and held vitally to the maxim that they who would know of a +doctrine must live out the doctrine. On no other conditions was it +possible to accomplish their mission--the regeneration of art. The +schools around them had fallen in great measure through lack of +sincerity and truth; they in contrast believed as our English Bishop +Butler taught, that conscience is the ruling faculty in the human mind. + +The style of art dominant in Rome during Overbeck's early residence did +not materially differ from that which he had left behind him in Vienna. +The Director, in fact, of the Viennese Academy had in youth won the +prize of Rome, and there became the representative of the prevailing +decadence. Among the Italians, Battoni, following in the footsteps of +Carlo Maratti, was not without the grace and the beauty of Correggio and +Guido. Descending a generation later, Overbeck found among his +contemporaries Pietro Benvenuto, one of the most distinguished adherents +of the school of David: whose masterpiece in Arezzo Cathedral has justly +been designated "one of the finest productions of modern art." These +were not men to be wholly despised. Furthermore it is to be remembered, +as before indicated, that the Germans, in a generation only just passed +away, had here in Rome formed a learned school based on the antique; +Lessing, in his treatise, the 'Laocoon,' and Winckelmann, by his +criticisms on the marbles of the Vatican, had induced a new Classic +Renaissance. The painter Raphael Mengs, thus guided, appropriately +executed in the Villa Albani the famous fresco of _Apollo and the Nine +Muses on Mount Parnassus_. Again, here are men and manifestations not to +be disdained. But for such art Overbeck, as we have seen, cherished +inveterate antipathy: whether he was absolutely right, impartial +critics, founding a judgment on a wide historic basis, will hesitate to +determine. The correct verdict probably is that each school is good of +its kind, that the one possesses merits distinctive of the other, and +that it is well for the world that every mode of thought should in turn +obtain the fullest and highest manifestation. But Overbeck's vision was +too intently focussed on one point to perceive that his sphere was but a +segment, a part, though by no means an unimportant part, of the greater +whole. The classic movement, against which he set his face steadily, was +not to be easily annihilated; it survived in Rome in such illustrious +representatives as Canova, Thorwaldsen and Gibson. But Overbeck grew +more and more the recluse; he shortly became a proselyte to the Romish +Church, shut himself out from other associations, and thus after a time +devoted his pencil exclusively to Christian Art. + +The early pictures and drawings executed in Rome carry out the painter's +resolve. To this first period belong: _The Adoration of the Kings_ +(1811), _Jesus in the House of Martha and Mary_ (1812), _The Preaching +of St. John_, _The Raising of Lazarus_, _The Entombment_, _Christ +Blessing Little Children_, _The Holy Family_, _Ave Maria, Blessed art +thou among Women_, also a portrait of Vittoria Caldoni.[2] The first +commission received by the struggling painter came from Queen Caroline +of Bavaria for _The Adoration of the Kings_, in oils. The Queen had +written to Rome saying that she wished for a picture by the young +artist; that as to the price, a hard bargain need not be driven, for +when one gains a beautiful work, the cost cannot be regretted. Overbeck, +on receiving the good news, writes, December 16, 1811, "I was so +overpowered with joy that I could not bring out a syllable. The affair +moves me all the more because I had not dreamt of it. What can be the +cause of my good fortune? Happy day! I shall think of it as long as I +live: to the Lord be the praise." Four days later he writes to +Lubeck:--"What joy! I can now relieve my parents from further burden. +This is the moment so long wished for. Henceforth and for ever I am a +man and an independent artist in the workshop, free as a king over the +boundless domain of fantasy to create a beautiful world." + +The maxim that correct drawing lies at the foundation of all true art +was maintained by the Brotherhood through both precept and example. +Overbeck first mastered form, he trained his hand to outline; next he +learnt the principles of composition, that is the power of combining +separate parts into a connected whole; lastly, he added colour, but +rather as an accessory than an essential. Hence his water-colours and +even his oil-pictures are often little more than tinted drawings. In the +first Roman period, that is up to about the year 1820, when the age of +thirty had been reached, we find the artist in full possession of the +faculty of expressing his ideas at the point of his pencil. Of this +happy facility many examples have come before me: one especially, at +Stift Neuburg, _The Raising of Jairus's Daughter_ (1814); another, +almost a replica of the last, delicately washed with colour, in the +private collection of Herr Malss, of the Stadel Institute, Frankfort. I +note with admiration the precision and subtlety of the form, especially +in the hands and feet. The work, though small in scale (1 ft. 3 in. by +1 ft.), is large in manner, the treatment being that of the Great +Masters as distinguished from the Small Masters. Overbeck, who was on +intimate terms with the family of Director Malss, said that he wished +they should have a work as perfect as he could make it: verily he +realised his endeavour. Belonging to the same period, I find in another +private collection in Frankfort a portrait in delicate pencilling of a +young girl of about eighteen; the hair is in close curls all round the +head, the necklace is marked with utmost detail. Perhaps I have not laid +sufficient stress on the truth and rectitude of Overbeck's work, as +seen, for instance, in the _Head of an Old Monk_ among the drawings of +the National Gallery, Berlin. This is so close to nature that a +deformity in one ear has been conscientiously registered. The handling +here is masterly, the touch firm and strong; the play of lines in the +hatchings proves a free hand and a facile turn of the wrist. Also may be +mentioned, for incidents taken from the life, a remarkable composition +at Stift Neuburg, _The Feeding of the Hungry_. Close to nature are these +transcripts of the poor, the needy, and aged, one advancing on crutches +to receive bounty; and over all presides the spirit of beauty and +charity. Also in the same collection is a triptych, wherein angels and +cherubs appear: this is among the earliest examples of the intervention +of the supernatural. Overbeck was not the man to rush in where angels +fear to tread. Likewise among Biblical subjects, I find in the National +Gallery, Berlin, _The Creation of Adam and Eve_, and _The Expulsion from +Paradise_. Here the delineation of the undraped figure proves absolute +knowledge, and shows, as before said, that the usual course of drawing +from the nude had been gone through. The point indeed need not be +discussed further, as Schadow expressly states that Overbeck's drawings +from the nude as well as from the draped figure were, for subtlety and +truth to nature, the admiration of every one. The _Creation_ and +_Expulsion_ are of exceptional value, because the artist for once +borrows from Michelangelo: also it will be seen that Overbeck gave +himself from the outset to the illustration of the Biblical narrative, +and thus fondly trod in the footsteps of Giotto and Fra Angelico. + +An Exhibition of the works of the German painters in Rome was held in +1819, in a room of the Palazzo Caffarelli, which, as the official +residence of Niebuhr and Bunsen, had often been a spot of kindly meeting +and hospitality. The collection Frederick Schlegel pronounced +unsurpassed in richness, variety, and intrinsic value. Public interest +was awakened, and attention centred round the contributions of Overbeck, +Schadow, Veit and Cornelius. Overbeck sent a _Madonna_ and a _Flight +into Egypt_; and Schlegel specially names the cartoon of _Jerusalem +Delivered_, for the frescoes then in progress at the Villa Massimo, as +proof of the artist's power of expression and faculty of invention. He +adds: "The struggle of the German artists in Rome daily excites more and +more observation, and their progress is watched with cordial sympathy by +men of all nations." + +A very serious topic must now be considered. Overbeck in 1813 +relinquished the Protestant faith of his forefathers and joined the +Roman Catholic Church. Obviously in these pages polemics are out of +place, and the step which the conscientious painter thought fit to take +has to be here noted so far only as it serves as an index to character +and as an interpretation of art. Rightly to judge the case, it were well +correctly to estimate Overbeck as a man: his strength lay within his +art, outside which he had infirmities; his bodily health was feeble, his +mind to the extreme refined and to the last degree sensitive; he shrank +from the conflict of life; common people he could not associate with; +for the ordinary world he was wholly unfit, and sought refuge in some +ideal not yet reached. Niebuhr truly reads the character when he writes: +"Overbeck is an enthusiast and quite illiberal; he is a very amiable man +and endowed with a magnificent imagination, but incapable by nature of +standing alone, and by no means so clear-headed as he is poetical. He +bends easily and naturally under the yoke of the Catholic faith." + +Overbeck doubtless felt all the more need of safe anchorage from the sea +of troubles on which many minds were cast through the controversy and +scepticism which agitated Protestant Europe. In Lubeck, as we have seen, +the phases of faith were philosophic and aesthetic, and the divinities of +Olympus and Parnassus shared equal favour with the saints of the Church. +The young painter was cast in a severer mould, and needed that the +infinite and eternal should be circumscribed by definite form. It is +reported of a certain German philosopher that, when addressing his +class, he ended with the words:--"In the next lecture we shall proceed +to construct God!" Overbeck preferred to such speculation the authority +of the Church. The painter Joseph Fuhrich puts the case strongly:[3] he +declares that his friend had to take the choice between Pantheism and +Catholicism. Overbeck felt that art was a religious question, and he +determined that all his work should be a protest against the +indifferentism and latitudinarianism which account all religions equal. +He conceded that secular writings and mundane arts were not without +their value and charm; in the arts may be permitted divers +manifestations, such as landscape, animal, and flower painting. The +Church is tolerant of all that is good, but on the highest pinnacle +stands the Christian painter. Over these matters he had pondered long, +and was accustomed to say to himself, "Let not my Christ be ever robbed +of my love; the true home of art is within the soul before the altar of +the Church; the tabernacle of art has its foundations in the worship of +God." + +Early Christian Art naturally drew Overbeck towards the Roman Catholic +Church. Frederick Schlegel, Rio, Pugin severally fell under the same +spell. The old mosaics, frescoes, and easel pictures which came down +through unbroken ecclesiastical descent, were for the Christian artist +of the nineteenth century means of grace, and served as revelations of +the Divine. Fra Angelico was taken as a pattern; through living and +loving, watching and praying, believing and working, the High Priesthood +of Art was to be established. And the actual experiences of modern Rome +brought no disillusion; the frivolity and the hollowness which so often +disgust newcomers were either not seen or were turned aside from. The +painter was too pure and childlike to realise the evil, he turned only +to the good: for him the world shone as a land of light; from art he +would exorcise the passions; the true art-life blended heaven with +earth, the ideal could be attained only through the Church: her +teachings were the education of humanity. + +The decisive step ultimately taken is recorded as follows: "Overbeck at +Whitsuntide in the year 1813 joined the Catholic Faith, and with joy +entered into the family of the world's Church. His spiritual guide and +confessor was Professor, afterwards Cardinal, Ostini; and the poet +Zacharias Werner, of Konigsberg, as a fellow-countryman from the shores +of the northern sea, acted as godfather at the ceremony. The poet, in +writing at the time to the Prince Primate of Dalberg, said that he +recognised in the young painter 'a true seraphic character of the +Fatherland.'"[4] + +A veritable mental epidemic seized on the German artists, and when one +after another of Overbeck's friends followed his example, Niebuhr took +alarm, and bethought himself of what measures could be taken. It appears +that a pamphlet had been published intended expressly for the conversion +of the young Germans, and Niebuhr, feeling the emergency of the +situation, requested a friend to bring or send Luther's works with other +writings against Popery. He adds: "It cannot be expressed how disgusting +these proceedings become the more you see of them. At this moment the +proselytes have Schadow, one of the ablest of the young artists, on +their bait." At a later date he writes: "I like Overbeck and the two +Schadows much, and they are estimable both as artists and as men; but +the Catholicism of Overbeck and one of the Schadows excludes entirely +many topics of conversation." Overbeck is elsewhere described as of +"very prepossessing physiognomy, taciturn and melancholy," with a +"proselyting spirit." Bunsen, who no less than Niebuhr deplored these +conversions, writes in 1817 that Overbeck had been for a fortnight in +August a welcome guest at Frascati, that he had finished a water-colour +drawing--a very lovely Madonna with the infant Jesus--"of which he +permitted a copy to be taken, still extant, and valued as a record of +the time and of the short-lived intimacy with the gentle and +heavenly-minded artist, who soon after this period withdrew from all +companions of a different religious persuasion from that which he had +adopted." Among the chief converts are numbered the brothers Schadow, +Veit, Platner, and the critic Frederick Schlegel. Cornelius is not +included, because he was born into Catholicism. He is described as of +"an open and powerful intellect, free from all limitations," "with +habits and convictions rooted as the facts of his existence." He thus +looked on coolly while the new converts were at fever-heat. Yet it is +pleasant to know that these controversies were, in the main, preserved +from personal bitterness, and that whatever might be the difference in +creeds, the broad union of religion and humanity was never torn asunder. +Thus in 1817 Niebuhr, a Protestant and possibly something more, was able +to write: "I associate chiefly, indeed almost exclusively, with the +artists who belong to the religious party, because those who are +decidedly pious, or who strive after piety, are by far the noblest and +best men, and also the most intellectual, and this gives me an +opportunity of hearing a good deal on faith and its true nature." And +the faith of these men we know to have brought forth good works; as were +their belief and their practice, such were their pictures, and it is +scarcely here the place to discuss whether larger views might have given +to their art wider extension. + +By a curious coincidence, about the time when these conversions to Roman +Catholicism were going on in Rome the third jubilee of the Reformation +was celebrated at Lubeck. The pietist father of the painter made himself +champion of the cause, and delivered a speech at a meeting of the Bible +Society, wherein he proclaimed Luther the great witness of truth. +"Luther," he declared, "spoke, wrote, thundered, and the power of +darkness was overturned; thus conscience became free, doctrines were +purified, and the precious Bible, as a heavenly treasure, was given back +to the people."[5] It has been assigned as a reason why Overbeck never +returned home, that he could not bear to see the city of Lubeck with her +old walls thrown down; but a less fanciful cause was that other walls +than those of brick and mortar had been set up, dividing kindred and +friends. + +Let us now turn from polemics to the pleasing descriptions given by +Niebuhr and Bunsen of the daily lives of the German Brotherhood. It is +not always that archaeologists and literary men are the soundest +counsellors of artists; they place overmuch stress on the inward +conception and motive; they lay down, like Coleridge, the axiom that "a +picture is an intermediate something between a thought and a thing," and +in exalting the "thought" they subordinate the "thing." This was the +last teaching that Overbeck needed. He and his fellows were already only +too prone to ignore technique, to neglect colour, chiaroscuro, texture. +They deemed it all-sufficient to perfect form as the language of +thought; consequently while their works instruct and elevate, they fail +to please or to gain wide popularity. + +Nevertheless, taken for all in all, Overbeck and Cornelius must be +accounted most fortunate in their intellectual companionship. The habit +was, when gathered socially together at the Embassy in the Palazzo +Caffarelli, to read books, talk of pictures, and to consort together +generally for the furtherance of the great art revival in which Niebuhr +and Bunsen believed fervently. The attachment became mutual, the +intercourse was prized on both sides. Niebuhr writes of Cornelius and +his wife: "They are, strictly speaking, intimate family friends;" and +again he says: "The society of Cornelius and Overbeck gives an inspiring +variety to the day's occupations, and one or other of these intellectual +companions seldom fails to join our evening walks." In another letter we +read: "Cornelius of Dusseldorf, Platner from Leipzig, Koch from the +Tyrol, Overbeck from Lubeck, Mosler from Coblentz, and William Schadow +from Berlin, were assembled at Bunsen's in the apartments of the painter +Brandis: in different ways and degrees we are attached to them all, and +we think them men of talent. Their society is the only pleasure we +derive from human beings in Rome." The young artists are found to be +wholly without worldly wisdom, a charge to which at least Overbeck might +readily plead guilty. Niebuhr further declares: "I confidently believe +we are on the eve of a new era of Art in Germany, similar to the sudden +bloom of our literature in the eighteenth century." He discerned in the +movement an unaccustomed spiritual phenomenon--one of those +manifestations of the national mind from time to time found in the +history of humanity. He felt once more an outburst of the intellectual +life of Germany, a rising again of the force of genius which had +impelled Lessing, Kant, and Goethe, which had given birth to profound +philosophy and science, and had animated a whole people with patriotism +and a spirit of self-sacrifice to do battle amid national songs and +hymns, even to the death, in the cause of the King and the Fatherland. +Bunsen testifies how Niebuhr showed his affection and care for the +Prussian and German disciples of art; he considered it an agreeable part +of his duty and vocation to render them assistance, to encourage them in +their studies, to give them the time of which he was so sparing to men +of mere show and fashion, also to render them pecuniary assistance when +necessary. To Niebuhr belongs the honour of having been the first to +recognise the new school at the moment when it was "despised, derided, +and vituperated." He befriended the men who had to fight their way +against shallowness and wickedness, against the low and false taste of +connoisseurs and patrons, till the day came when the martyrs of an +exalted aspiration gained the attention and admiration of the world. + +Nor in numbering friends must be forgotten Frederick Schlegel, the +avowed champion of the new school. The critic was not without connecting +links and antecedents; he had made himself son-in-law of the Jewish +philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, and stepfather of the painter Philip +Veit; and he further qualified himself for his critical duties by +joining the Roman Catholic Church. Overbeck and this rhapsodist on +Christian Art were naturally close allies; each was of use to the other, +and gave and received in turns. The artist strove, it is said, to embody +in pictorial form his friend's teachings; the two, in fact, moved in +parallel lines. Schlegel urged that the new style must be emulative and +aspiring, ever possessed of lofty ideas. Believe not, he writes, that +the glory of art has passed away. The hope is not vain that there comes +a rekindling of former fires; art uprising from the dark night breaks as +the morning's dawn; "a new life can spring only from the depths of a new +love." Let us hold that Art like Nature renews her youth. The soul alone +can comprehend the truly beautiful; the eye gazes but on the material +veil--the union of the inner soul with the outward form constitutes the +noblest art. Nowhere are to be found more eloquent utterances on "the +Bond between Art and the Church," but in all is overlooked the simple +fact that "the Celestial light" cannot be made appreciable to mortal eye +otherwise than through the medium of matter, and according to the laws +of vision. And to such oversight is greatly to be ascribed the +infirmities of Overbeck and his school. It is forgotten that the most +holy of motives cannot save a picture which is not good as a picture. +Schlegel discusses the question, What is needed by the Christian +painter? The following phrenzy, though wordy, is worth reading:-- + +"The answer is that the beautiful truths of the Christian faith should +not be received into the mind as merely lifeless forms, in passive +acquiescence to the teaching of others: they must be embraced with an +earnest conviction of their truth and reality, and bound up with each +individual feeling of the painter's soul. Still even the influence of +devotion is not alone sufficient; for however entirely religion may be +felt to compensate for all that is wanting to our earthly happiness, +much more is required to form a painter. I know not how better to +designate that other element, without which mere technical skill, and +even correct ideas, will be unavailing, than by calling it the inborn +light of inspiration. It is something quite distinct from fertility of +invention, or magic of colouring, rare and valuable as is the latter +quality in painting. It is no less distinct from skill in the +technicalities of design and from the natural feeling for beauty +inherent in some susceptible minds. The poet and the musician should +also be inspired, but their inspiration is more the offspring of human +emotion; the painter's inspiration must be an emanation of celestial +light: his very soul must, so to speak, become itself illumined, a +glowing centre of holy radiance, in whose bright beams every material +object should be reflected; and even his inmost conceptions and daily +thoughts must be interpenetrated by its brightness and remodelled by its +power. This indwelling light of the soul should be recognised in every +creation of his pencil, expressive as a spoken word; and in this lies +the peculiar vitality of Christian beauty, and the cause of the +remarkable difference between Classic and Christian art." "Physical +beauty is employed by the Christian painter but as a material veil, from +beneath which the hidden divinity of the soul shines forth, illuminating +all mortal life with the higher spirituality of love." + +A kindly and timely commission came to the masters of the German +Brotherhood--Overbeck, Cornelius, Veit, and Schadow--from the Prussian +Consul, Bartholdi. Personal relations, with the desire of giving the +untried painters an opportunity of proving what good was in them, +prompted the charge to decorate with frescoes a room in the Casa +Bartholdi, situated on the brow of the Pincian Hill.[6] The Prussian +Consul was in a roundabout way connected with Philip Veit and Frederick +Schlegel, whose mutual relationship has been already recounted; his wife +was sister of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, and aunt of the +illustrious musician, and sundry intermarriages had made, as it were, a +compact in literature and art between the families of Bartholdi, +Mendelssohn, Veit, and Schlegel.[7] The chosen sphere of operations was +comparatively narrow; the small room in an upper story, now of historic +interest, is not more than twenty-four feet square. The situation is +inviting; the beauties of nature are usually found proximate with the +beauties of art, and here the windows command a panorama sweeping from +the Pincian to the Tiber, and embracing St. Peter's, the Vatican, St. +Angelo, and the Capitol. The topic chosen for these wall pictures was +the _Story of Joseph and his Brethren_--a theme conveniently +accommodating to any existing diversities in creeds or styles. The +technical process adopted was fresco, a monumental art, the revival of +which formed part of the mission of the German fraternity. The arduous +undertaking was commenced and carried out in strict accordance with +historic precedents. Preliminary studies were made, and well-matured +cartoons on the scale of the ultimate pictures were perfected. To the +lot of Overbeck fell _Joseph sold by his Brethren_,[8] and _The Seven +Years of Famine_. + +It has been my pleasure to visit and revisit these wall-paintings over a +period of a quarter of a century, and growing experience does but +enhance my admiration. They fulfil the first requirements of wall +decoration: the story is told lucidly and concisely; the style is +simple, noble; accidents are held subordinate to essentials; the +compositions are distributed symmetrically; the colour, though a little +crude, is brought into somewhat agreeable unity; the light and shade are +not focussed at one point, but carried evenly over the whole surface; +and the treatment inclines sufficiently to the flat to keep the +compositions down on the wall. The finished pictures of the four masters +vary in dimensions. The lengths range from eight to seventeen feet, the +height is mostly about eight feet; the figures do not exceed five feet. +The lines bounding the figures and draperies are firm and incisive. +Accordant with the practice of the old fresco-painters, each day's work +is marked and discernible by the joinings in the plaster, and the +junctions between the dry plaster of one day and the wet plaster of the +next are appropriately fixed at the points where the subject breaks off +readily and can be resumed most easily. The technique is thoroughly +mastered, and, barring some surface cracks, the paintings are in as +perfect condition as when they came from the artists' hands. The chief +defect is a somewhat crude opacity of pigments, a characteristic +belonging to the debased period of wall-painting rather than to the +"_fresco buono et puro_" of Giotto, Luini, and Pinturicchio. + +Another point to be remarked is that the frescoes in the Casa Bartholdi +show that the four painters--Overbeck, Cornelius, Veit, and +Schadow--worked here at the outset of their career in remarkable unison. +In the course of years they diverged widely, but as yet the school +collectively dominates over the artist individually. The Brethren had +formed themselves equally on the same originals, and had scarcely found +time to take their several departures from nature. Indeed, the actual +presence of nature comes almost as a surprise in these compositions. +Overbeck's figures are manifestly more or less studied from the life, +only, according to his habitual practice, he has taken pains to +eliminate from his models any individual accidents which marred the +generic form, softening down angularity and ruggedness into pervading +grace and beauty. Here and there are traces of affectation, together +with a feebleness incident to the painter's weak physique which stands +in utmost contrast with the force of Cornelius. Overbeck mostly shunned +action and dramatic intensity, and here the figures in their movements +depart but slightly from the equilibrium of repose. As a religious +artist, the New Testament was more within his sphere than the Old. Thus +the outrage committed against Joseph by his brethren is toned down into +a calm, orderly transaction; placidity reigns throughout; all is brought +into keeping with the painter's spirit of gentleness. + +The Casa Bartholdi frescoes,[9] when finished, produced a most +favourable impression in Rome; the cause of the Germans was greatly +strengthened, and the opposite party felt the defeat. The Italians, too, +were taken by surprise to find themselves beaten by foreigners on their +own ground. A natural consequence of the success was further +commissions, and the fortune no less than the fame of the revivalists +was made. Singularly enough the modern Romans came forward as the next +patrons. Niebuhr, writing from Rome in 1817, says: "It is a significant +fact that some foreigners, even Italians, are beginning to pay attention +to the works of our friends." It is well known that the Romans had been +addicted for centuries to mural painting in palaces, villas and +garden-houses: Raphael was employed to decorate the Farnesina; Guido and +Annibale Carracci painted the ceilings of the Farnese and of the +Rospigliosi Palaces. Emulating these illustrious examples, Prince +Massimo commissioned Overbeck, Cornelius, Veit, and Schnorr to cover the +walls and ceilings of his Garden Pavilion near St. John Lateran with +frescoes illustrative of Tasso, Dante, and Ariosto. Not only the themes, +but the local surroundings were inspiring. The Villa Massimo is a site +only possible in Rome. When the artists in the morning came to work, +before their view opened a panorama embracing the Claudian Aqueduct, St. +John Lateran, the Church of Sta. Croce in Gerusalemme, the old Walls of +Rome, with cypresses and stone pines around, and the Alban Hills beyond. +The Pavilion assigned to the painters stands in the Villa garden, with +the accustomed growth and fragrance of orange-trees, magnolias, azaleas, +roses, and violets. Overbeck entered on the work with poetic ardour. + +The Massimo Pavilion is little more than three rooms standing on the +ground; the first, indeed, is an Entrance Hall, and therein Schnorr +painted copiously from Ariosto. On the left a door leads to the room +assigned to Cornelius for the illustration of Dante: the ceiling fell to +the lot of Veit. On the right another door opens to a corresponding room +of like dimensions, set apart to Overbeck and Tasso's _Jerusalem +Delivered_.[10] This small interior is not more than fifteen feet +square, and the wall-spaces are much broken up by doors and windows, so +that only one of the four sides remained disencumbered. The compositions +are eleven in number, and are unequal alike in size and merit. The +largest and most noteworthy is fifteen feet long by ten feet high, +representing the _Meeting of Godfrey de Bouillon and Peter the Hermit_. +The narrative is lucidly told, the picture well put together, and the +successive planes of distance are duly marked. Altogether the +fundamental principles of wall-decoration are clearly understood in this +the most complex composition yet attempted by the painter. Another +thoroughly studied design is _Sophronio and Olindo on the Funeral Pyre +delivered by Clorinda_.[11] The action has more than usual force and +movement, and the undraped figures are drawn with severe exactitude. +Presiding over the whole series, in the middle of the ceiling, is an +allegorical figure of _Jerusalem Delivered_.[12] An angel on either side +unlooses the fetters of an innocent placid maiden crowned with thorns. +These frescoes, notwithstanding their situation in a cold, damp +garden-house, remained, when I saw them last, in January, 1878, in sound +condition: thus once more we find Overbeck, equally with Cornelius, to +have been solidly grounded in the method of wall-painting. + +I must confess that I have always been disappointed with this Tasso +Room.[13] One reason is that the carrying out of the original designs +was delegated to an inferior brush. Overbeck was not in strong health; +he worked slowly, and when other commissions came in, some more to his +liking, such as that for the church picture at Assisi, he felt +overburdened, and wished to be released from a task that had grown +wearisome. The work, began about 1817, had dragged on for ten years, +till at last Overbeck made a deliberate call on good and friendly Joseph +Fuhrich, and requested that he would complete the unfinished frescoes. +The proposal, naturally felt as an honour, was gratefully acceded to. +After this distance of time it becomes difficult to determine how far +this worthy substitute must be held responsible for much that is to be +regretted on these walls. For some of the compositions the master had +made nothing more than sketches or indications, and at least three must +be laid to the charge of the scholar. Fuhrich was for Overbeck what +Giulio Romano had been for Raphael, and the Tasso Room suffered the same +degradation as the latest stanza in the Vatican. + +The Tasso Room may be taken as a measure of Overbeck's capacity. This +"cyclus," or series, shows the painter's power of sustained thought and +faculty of invention. Much, doubtless, is compilation, yet something +remains of originality. The best passages are those not borrowed from +old pictures, but taken from life, which makes the regret all the +greater that here and in the sequel nature was not trusted more +implicitly. On the whole, these compositions leave the impression that +Overbeck had not mental force or physical stamina sufficient for the +task. It is true that the presence of a lyrical spirit is felt; but +scenes of Romance need more fire and passion; the deeds of Chivalry were +not enacted in a cloister. Perhaps self-knowledge wisely counselled +Overbeck to quit the regions of creative imagination. With greater peace +of mind he trod in the future, the safer paths of Christian Art, wherein +precedent and authority served as his guide and support. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: See among other authorities: 'Die Deutsche Kunst in +unserem Jahrhundert, von Dr. Hagen,' vol. ix. Berlin, 1857.] + +[Footnote 2: The above compositions suggest the following observations. +Overbeck was in the habit of making over many years replicas with +variations and improvements of favourite themes, and the dates of the +successive stages are not always easily determined. Of the _Preaching of +St. John_, the Dusseldorf Academy possesses an example dated 1831. Also +in the same collection is a mature and almost faultless drawing, fit +companion for Raphael, of _The Raising of Lazarus_; the figure of Christ +is 9 inches high. Overbeck made several renderings of the +universally-beloved composition, _Christ Blessing Little Children_: the +most deliberate is that given in these pages. The replica in the Meyer +Collection, Hamburg, is of the last decade of the artist's life, and +betrays infirmity of hand. _The Entombment_, classed above among works +of the first Roman period, is probably that now in the choice collection +at Stift Neuburg, near Heidelberg, dated 1814, and obviously suggested +by Raphael's _Entombment_ in the Borghese Palace. No drawings have +better pedigree than those in this old family mansion: a predecessor of +the present possessor was the artist's personal friend. The version of +_The Bearing to the Sepulchre_ given in these pages is from one of the +forty well-known drawings of the Gospels, and dates 1844. At Stift +Neuburg I also saw in the autumn of 1880, by the courtesy of the owner, +Graf von Bernus, the drawing for the _Holy Family_, chosen as an +illustration to this volume; it is of utmost delicacy and beauty--the +motive has evidently been borrowed from Raphael; the measurement is 1 +foot 3 inches by 1 foot 8 inches.] + +[Footnote 3: See 'Autobiography of Joseph Fuhrich,' published in Vienna +and Pesth, 1875.] + +[Footnote 4: See 'Historisch-Politische Blatter fur das Katholische +Deutschland,' vol. lvi., part 8. Munich, 1870.] + +[Footnote 5: See 'Erinnerung an Christian Adolph Overbeck;' Lubeck, +1830.] + +[Footnote 6: The Casa Bartholdi has for some years been let as lodgings +to a superior class of travellers, and is much favoured by the English. +The rooms are not always accessible; the servants have been known to +name, as the most convenient time for seeing the frescoes, Sunday +mornings, when the tenants are attending the English Church. The Painted +Chamber is suitably furnished for daily uses; _The History of Joseph_, +which covers the walls, is not too serious a theme to mingle with the +common avocations of domestic life: fresco-painting, in fact, is not +only a national and an ecclesiastic, but likewise a domestic art.] + +[Footnote 7: The Royal Academy Exhibition, Berlin, 1880, contained a +large coloured design for the decoration of the ceiling of the Villa +Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. Thus the joint names over a period of more than +half a century stand conspicuous among art-patrons.] + +[Footnote 8: Overbeck's cartoon in charcoal on paper of _Joseph sold by +his Brethren_ is carefully preserved under glass in the Stadel +Institute, Frankfort, where I examined it in 1880: the width is 11 feet, +the height 8 feet, the figures are about 5 feet. The outlines are firmly +accentuated; the details sufficient without being elaborate; the figure, +as proved specially in the arms, hands, legs, and feet, is perfectly +understood; the draperies are cast simply and broadly; the heads of +noble type are impressed with thought. Not a false touch appears +throughout; the crayon is guided by knowledge; evidently preliminary +studies and tentative drawings must have preceded this consummated +product. No wonder that this cartoon made a deep impression; nothing had +been seen at all like it in Rome for very many years.] + +[Footnote 9: Many are the authors who have written on the Casa Bartholdi +frescoes, the chief authorities are Hagen, Forster, Reber, and Riegel.] + +[Footnote 10: See among authorities before named, 'Geschichte des +Wiederauflebens der deutschen Kunst zu Ende des 18. und Anfang des 19. +Jahrhunderts, von Hermann Riegel.' Hannover, 1876.] + +[Footnote 11: The cartoon for this fresco is in the Leipzig Museum, +where I examined it in 1880. It is in chalk on whity-brown paper, in +squares and mounted on canvas; length 15 feet by 7 feet. As a mature +study of form and composition it is just what a cartoon should be, but +the touch is feeble and poor. Like most of Overbeck's designs, it has +received the tribute of engraving.] + +[Footnote 12: The cartoon was acquired for the National Gallery, Berlin, +in 1878, at the price of 37_l_. 10_s_. 0_d_.; measurement 6 feet by 4 +feet: it has been engraved.] + +[Footnote 13: Persistent difficulties are placed in the way of even +students who desire to visit these frescoes; the public are +systematically excluded from the Villa Massimo, and on two occasions, +when after much trouble I gained orders for admission, the attendant, in +accordance with instructions, forbade the taking of notes.] + + + + + CHAPTER III. + + ROME--GERMANY. + + +The life of Overbeck apportioned itself into successive periods of five, +ten, or more years, corresponding to the important works from time to +time in hand. The painter threw his whole mind into whatever he +undertook, and so his pictures in their conception, and even in their +execution, reflect the thought and the state of consciousness which for +the while held supreme sway. The preceding chapters treat of two +periods; the one describes the early times in Lubeck and Vienna, the +other presents a sketch of the first decade in Rome. The foundations +have been laid; the main principles for the guidance of a true life and +for the building up of a soul-moving art have been firmly fixed; and now +it remains to be seen how far and in what way the lofty aim was reached. + +Overbeck, as soon as his prospects in life became somewhat assured, +married. Little is recorded of the wife: the earliest mention I have met +with is in 1818, when the artists in Rome gave a grand fete in honour of +the Crown Prince of Bavaria. Overbeck and Cornelius furnished designs +for pictorial decorations and transparencies: the guests wore mediaeval +costumes, and made themselves otherwise attractive; and we learn on the +authority of Madame Bunsen that among the brilliant assembly "the most +admired of the evening was Overbeck's future wife, a lady beautiful, +engaging, and influential, from Vienna."[1] The marriage, which was not +long delayed, proved on the whole happy, though the wife's delicate +health gave constant cause for anxiety, and her other demands on an +indulgent husband are said to have provoked the displeasure of Cornelius +and other friends. Two children were the fruits of the union: a girl, +who died young, and a boy, who lived only long enough to give singular +promise. + +Overbeck, as we have seen, had, in common with his brethren, given his +best powers to "monumental painting." For this noble and "architectonic +art" he was not without qualifications. He moved in an exalted sphere, +his mind ranged among immutable truths, his forms were high in type, his +compositions had symmetry and concentration, he knew how to adapt lines +and masses to structural spaces. An occasion calculated to call forth +his powers came with the commission to paint in fresco _The Vision of +St. Francis_ for the church of Sta. Maria degli Angeli, near Assisi. +Overbeck here, as his custom was, remained obedient to tradition, and +yet struck out a new path; he was not content to retrace the footsteps +of Giotto or of Cigoli, he preferred to depict the vision of his own +mind. He enthrones the Madonna as Queen of Heaven, seated by the side of +the risen Saviour, surrounded by the angelic hosts. On the lower earth, +also attended by angels, appears St. Francis in adoration, while on the +other side kneel reverently two mendicant friars. The picture belongs to +the middle period, when the artist had attained the mature age of forty: +the style, speaking historically, is that of the grave and severely +defined Florentine school as represented by the Brancacci chapel. The +fresco has been accounted by some the painter's masterpiece, and it is +pronounced by Count Raczynski as one of the few works of modern days +worthy of transmission to future ages.[2] + +Overbeck, it is easy to believe, while painting on the very spot where +St. Francis was in ecstasy, led a life much to his liking. He dwelt +within the monastery, and his pure mind, open only to the good, was +blind to the dissolute ways of monks who became a scandal to the +district. When the fresco was half finished, the master received a visit +from his bosom friends Steinle and Fuhrich, and the three strengthened +one another as they communed on religion and the arts. Overbeck is known +to have had leanings towards a convent life, and at one time, when +seriously thinking of taking the vow, he received from the Pope friendly +admonition that his true mission lay within his art, and that by +renouncing the world his usefulness would be lessened. It can scarcely, +however, be doubted that asceticism became so much the habit of his life +as to afflict his mental condition, and to impoverish his art. Some +critics indeed point to the early picture of _The Seven Years of Famine_ +as the origin of a certain starved aspect in subsequent compositions. +Pharaoh's lean kine have been supposed to symbolise the painter, and the +spare fare within the cells of St. Francis served to confirm the +persuasion that flesh and blood, in art as in life, must be kept in +subjection. Nevertheless, I for one, when on the spot, could not but +revere the pictorial outcome; when first I made acquaintance with this +plenary revelation of the painter, I had been taking a walking-tour, +knapsack on back, through the Umbrian hills and valleys, the birth-land +of St. Francis; I had become acquainted with the wall and panel +paintings of Giotto, Gentile di Fabriano, Perugino, Giovanni Santi, and +the youthful Raphael; and while looking on this heavenly "Vision," I +could not but feel that Overbeck ranked among the holy company. Unlike +most modern painters, surely he had not to worship in the outer court of +the Gentiles. + +Overbeck received repeated solicitations to return to Germany: he was +asked in 1821 by Cornelius to take the directorship of the Dusseldorf +Academy, and four years later he writes in reply to the further +persuasions of Wintergerst and Mosler. He urges his incapacity for the +duties: he had learnt painting, he says, in a way difficult to impart to +others; moreover, sculpture and architecture he did not understand at +all, and as for the business matters he was without faculty. Further +difficulties were the health of his wife and the welfare of his son: +"every information," he continues, "I receive from my native country +tells me of spiritual fermentations: the sanctuary, insufficiently +protected by the law, suffers under attacks, and a proud worldly spirit +raises its head and proclaims its wisdom. Can parents be blind to the +risks to which they expose their child, till now reared in the most +delightful simplicity of belief? Dearest friends, can you give us the +assurance that we shall be able to educate our son in the simple +Catholic faith which we have learnt to recognise as the most vital and +consoling." Overbeck, it need hardly be added, shrank from the dangers +and declined the duties. + +But, at length, free from pressing and onerous commissions, he lent a +more willing ear to invitations from Germany. Cornelius in 1830 had come +to Rome from Munich, the better to complete certain cartoons; with him +were a daughter, also his wife, who had under charge Fraulein Emilie +Linder, a young lady of Basle, of some means and given to pictorial +pursuits. Overbeck, on the completion of his wall-painting at Assisi, +rejoined the brilliant art circle of the Roman capital, and from this +time dates the memorable friendship between the lady, then a Protestant, +and the great Catholic painter. After a winter pleasantly passed among +congenial spirits, the whole party in the early summer of 1831 set out +from Rome and reached Florence. Emilie Linder returned for a time to +Basle, while Overbeck, under the care of Cornelius, by way of the Tyrol +reached Munich. On the news of their approach in July, the local +artists, young and old, assembled at the gates, outposts had been +stationed along the road, and the townfolks gathered by thousands in the +streets: from afar the cheering was heard, and then group after group +raised the cry, "Overbeck!" "Cornelius!" The entry soon grew into a +triumphal march, and, protests notwithstanding, the horses were unyoked, +and a company of lusty youths drew the carriage to the dwelling of +Cornelius. + +Twenty years had elapsed since Overbeck, an unknown youth, had quitted +his native land; he now returned with a world-wide reputation. +Cornelius, once the sharer of his trials, became the equal recipient of +the triumphs; he had just completed the grand series of frescoes for the +Glyptothek, and with him were brought the cartoons elaborated in Rome +for the wall-paintings in the new Ludwig Kirche. Overbeck, as the guest +of his old friend, passed happy weeks in Munich. The two painters +conferred closely together in the interests of Christian Art, and aided +each other in the arduous works soon to be carried out. The artists of +Bavaria signalised the visit of the apostle of Christian Painting by a +jubilee; they gave in honour of the illustrious stranger one of those +joyous and scenic fetes for which Munich is famed. The locality chosen +was the Starnberger See, a lovely region of hill and lake lying in the +Bavarian highlands, bordering on the Ammergau, peopled by peasants with +sacred traditions since better known through "The Passion Play." +Overbeck writes gratefully of enjoyment and instruction received through +kind friends among the beauties of nature and of art. + +The Roman recluse in his journey northwards had widely extended his +knowledge of nature. On leaving the Apennines he encountered the Alps, +and exchanged beauty for grandeur. His figures were often accompanied by +landscapes; but mountains exceeding in altitude five or six thousand +feet appalled his imagination; masses of such magnitude could not enter +the smaller sphere of his consciousness; hence his northern +peregrinations brought into his compositions no Alpine presences; +indeed, his habitual serenity and simplicity were disturbed by dramatic +stir or storm of the elements, and though his sympathies warmed under +novel experiences, his art failed to take a new departure. + +I have often when in Munich regretted that Overbeck had no share in the +Bavarian manifestations of Christian Art. But that he, the head of the +religious revival, is left out was simply his own fault. Cornelius, in +1821, when as director reorganising the Academy, wrote to his friend, +asking assistance; King Ludwig also urged Overbeck to come. But the +timorous artist as usual hesitated; he gave at first assent, conditional +however on a delay of three years to complete works in hand; then he +pleaded the impossibility of taking any step whatsoever without the +sense of religious duty. The King naturally grew weary, and interpreted +the equivocal dealing as a denial. Cornelius again in 1833, when the new +Basilica of St. Boniface needed decoration, once more proposed that his +fellow-labourer in Rome should settle in Munich, but with no avail; the +King evidently had little cordiality for the artist, and so employed +others on the plea, not wholly tenable, that Overbeck was better in oil +than in fresco. Thus the large acreage of wall surfaces dedicated to +Christian Art in the churches of Munich and the Cathedral of Spires fell +into the hands of Cornelius, Hess, and Schraudolph. It is impossible not +to regret that this grand sphere was thus closed to the artist who of +all others had most of beauty to reveal. Yet the sensitive painter might +have encountered much to disturb his peace of mind. King Ludwig could +not assuredly be quite the patron for a spiritual and esoteric artist, +and, moreover, there was something too wholesale in the Munich way of +going on for a man of limited strength. Overbeck, as I can testify, was +about the last person to climb a giddy ladder or to endure a long day's +drudgery before an acreage of wall fifty feet above the ground. He +wisely did not overstep his bounds; he had not the wing of an eagle, and +preferred to keep as a dove, near to the nest. + +Nevertheless, Munich is not without witness to the spirit of the mystic +and poetic painter. King Ludwig, himself at least a poetaster, hit upon +a felicitous comparison, oft since reiterated, when he designated +Overbeck the St. John and Cornelius the St. Paul in pictorial art. The +two artists, like the two apostles, had a common faith, though a diverse +calling, and their several works testify how greatly the one was +indebted to the other. Overbeck brought with him to Bavaria a drawing of +exceptional power, _Elias in the Chariot of Fire_ (1827), a composition +which reflects as indubitably the greatness of Cornelius as Raphael's +_Isaiah_ responds to the grandeur of Michelangelo. But this lofty strain +of inspiration proved transient, and Overbeck, as seen in Munich, truly +personates the apostle who leant on the Saviour's breast. The New +Pinakothek is fortunate in the possession of three pictures.[3] One is +the _Portrait of Vittoria Caldoni_, already enumerated among earliest +efforts; another is the _Holy Family_, illustrating these pages; the +composition recalls Raphael's Florentine manner. The third, _Italy and +Germany_, must be accounted exceptional because secular; the motive, +however, rises above common life into symbolism. Two maidens in tender +embrace are depicted seated in a landscape, the one blonde and homely, +personifying Germania; the other dark and ideal, as if Tasso inspired, +typical of Italia. The intention has given rise to interesting +speculation. The German girl leans forward in earnest entreaty, while +her Italian sister remains immobile and impenetrable. And herein some +have seen shadowed forth a divided mind between two nationalities. +Solicitations had come from Germany, yet, after moments of hesitation, +Overbeck held fast to the land of his adoption, and his resolve may not +inaptly find expression in "Italia," a figure which seems to say, "Vex +not my spirit; leave me to rest in this land of peace and of beauty." +But this composition is supposed to speak of yet wider experiences. The +painter had given much time to the writing of a romance descriptive or +symbolic of human life, wherein he embodied his own personal feelings +and aspirations. The two principal characters in this unpublished story +are said to be here depicted under the guise of "Italia and Germania." +The composition thus becomes somewhat autobiographic. + +Munich is identified with a friendship between Overbeck and a lady, +which ranks among the most memorable of Platonic attachments. Fraulein +Emilie Linder we have already encountered in Rome, where an abiding +friendship was rooted, and the devoted lady, on separation, soon found +occasion to open a correspondence which was prolonged over a period of +thirty years. Overbeck was a persistent letter-writer; he wasted no time +on society, and so gained leisure to write epistles and publish essays. +And yet it cannot be said that, had he not been an artist, he would have +shone as the brightest of authors. On the contrary, as with the majority +of painters, he never acquired an adroitness of pen commensurate with +his mastery in the use of his pencil; and it is certain that if his +pictures had been without adorers, his prose would have remained without +readers. The great painter was destitute of literary style; his +sentences are cumbrous and confused; his pages grow wearisome by wordy +repetition. Doubtless his thoughts are pure and elevated, but, lacking +originality, they run into platitudes, and barely escape commonplace. +The prolonged correspondence with Emilie Linder[4] contracts the flavour +peculiar to polemics. Overbeck had grown into a "fanatic Catholic"; he +was ever casting out nets to catch converts; his tactics were enticing; +his own example proved persuasive. Moreover, about his mind and method +was something effusive, which won on the hearts of emotional women. At +all events, these letters brought over to the Roman Catholic Church the +lady and others. And so it naturally came to pass that the bonds of +union were drawn very close when the revered apostle and the devout +disciple reposed within the same sheepfold. These letters have a further +significance; they declare what indeed is otherwise well established, +that the Catholic faith served as the prime moving power in the life and +the art of Overbeck. + +The painter brought to Munich ten or more drawings executed in Rome with +a view to his travelling expenses, and Emilie Linder lost no time in +making an offer for the set, to add to her private collection. The +artist, with suitable diffidence, hesitated, yet looked on the proposal +as an interposition of Providence, and then begged for the money at +once, to help him on his further journey into Germany. Though success +had delivered him from poverty, and commissions came in faster than he +could paint, yet at no time did he roll in wealth; spite of scrupulous +economy, he never much more than paid his way; and a few years later, +when, for Emilie Linder, engaged on _The Death of St. Joseph_,[5] he +gladly accepted beforehand the price by instalments. The correspondence +shows a tender conscience, with a humility not devoid of independence. +The art products were in fact of so high a quality that the painter +conferred a greater favour than any he could receive in return. + +Overbeck left the hospitable roof of Cornelius in Munich at the end of +August, 1831, and reached Heidelberg, there to meet with an enthusiastic +reception from friends and admirers; there also, after a separation of +five-and-twenty years, he saw once more, and for the last time, his +elder brother from Lubeck. Close to Heidelberg, overhanging the banks of +the Necker, is Stift Neuburg, formerly a monastic establishment, but +then the picturesque residence of a family in warmest bonds of +friendship with the art brethren. At this lovely spot, I am told by the +present owner, "Overbeck stayed several days, and a seat in the garden +is still called after him 'Overbeck's Platzchen.'" On this rustic bench +the painter was wont to sit meditatively amid scenery of surpassing +beauty; the quietude of nature and the converse of kindred minds were to +his heart's content. Within the old mansion, on the walls and in +portfolios, are the choicest examples of the artist's early and middle +periods; thus Stift Neuburg in its house and grounds remains sacred to +the painter's memory.[6] + +From Heidelberg Overbeck travelled to Frankfort--a city soon to become a +focus of the wide-spreading revival. Here the apostle of sacred art made +the acquaintance of the poet Clemens Brentano, and fell among other +friends and adorers. Philip Veit, his fellow-worker in the Casa +Bartholdi and the Villa Massimo, had just been appointed Director of the +Stadel Institute, where he executed one of the noblest of frescoes--_The +Introduction of the Arts into Germany through Christianity_. Likewise +among warm adherents was Johann Passavant, a painter who in Rome had +joined the brethren, a critic who made a name by the 'Life of Raphael.' +Overbeck was here esteemed "the greatest living artist," and some +expressed "the cherished thought, the earnest desire" that the painter +should be secured for Frankfort. But as this proved out of the question, +the promise was gladly accepted of the master-work since famous as _The +Triumph of Religion in the Arts_. Cologne next received a visit, and the +Cathedral choir having advanced towards completion, the assistance of +the Christian painter was naturally solicited: _The Assumption of the +Virgin_, now adorning a side chapel, counts among the memorable fruits +of the painter's timely visit to his native land. This northern journey +was extended as far as Dusseldorf, a sequestered town already growing +illustrious for its school of religious painting. Wilhelm Schadow, +co-partner in Roman labours, had here, as Director of the Academy, +gathered round him devoted scholars, and Overbeck greeted his old friend +as a missionary in the common cause. After receiving on all hands +respectful adulations which would have turned a vainer head, the +traveller bent his steps southwards, and reached Italy by way of +Strasburg and Switzerland. On reaching Rome, he writes on the 1st of +December to Cornelius in characteristic tone: "You will understand with +what lively joy I once more saw my beloved Rome; I therefore will not +conceal the painful impression which the distracted opinions and +doctrines in the Fatherland have left in my mind, but I feel rest in the +persuasion that, through the dispensation of Providence, my lot has been +cast in this Roman seclusion, not that I intend to lay my hands idly in +my lap, but, on the contrary, I shall endeavour to work with my utmost +ability, spurred on all the more by the thought that even here at a +distance I shall move in your circle." Assuredly as to professional +prospects the passage of the Alps had extended the artist's circuit: the +Italian works which chiefly mark the painter's first period had come to +an end; henceforth Overbeck's labours, though prosecuted within the +Roman studio, were for the good of Germany. + +Overbeck, in September, 1833, witnessed an event memorable in the +history of art: he was present at the opening of Raphael's tomb in the +Pantheon, and a few days after he wrote to his friend Veit at Frankfort +a circumstantial account, as some relief to his overwhelming emotions. +The letter is here of interest as evidence of Overbeck's unshaken +allegiance to the great master; if called by others a pre-Raphaelite, he +remained at heart faithful to the painter from whom indeed he borrowed +largely. Unlike certain of our English artists and critics, he never +decried Raphael. He writes: "Know, then, I was present at the opening of +Raphael's grave, and have looked upon the true and incomparable master. +What a shudder came over me when the remains of the honoured painter +were laid open, thou canst better conceive than I can describe. May this +deep experience not be without good results for us: may the remembrance +of the honoured one make us more worthy inheritors of his spirit!"[7] + +Overbeck about this time, in letters to Emilie Linder, begins to express +ultra views, to the prejudice of his art. He pleads that certain +Biblical drawings may have for her more worth because the religious +meaning dominates over the art skill. In like manner he writes +apologetically concerning _The Death of St. Joseph_. The picture, he +urges, embodies not so much a historic fact as an idea, the intent being +not to lead the spectator to the real, but to something beyond. The +purist painter then proceeds to express his invincible reluctance to +study the subject from the side of life; models he had carefully +avoided, because he feared that a single glance at nature would destroy +the whole conception. It is with sincere regret that I have to record so +pernicious a doctrine. Surely the artist's special function must always +be to find out the divine element in nature, and fatal is the day when +first he calls into question the essential oneness between Nature and +God. But Overbeck's peculiar phase of Catholicism marred as well as made +his art. Through the Church he entered a holy, heavenly sphere, and his +pictures verily stand forth as the revelation of his soul. But the +sublimest of doctrines sometimes prove to be utterly unpaintable, and +certainly the tenets to which Overbeck gave a super-sensuous turn, in +the end perplexed and clouded his art. Outraged nature took her revenge, +and the sequel shows that Overbeck so diverted his vision and narrowed +his pictorial range that his art fell short of the largeness of nature +and humanity. + +Northern Germany claimed the illustrious painter as her son, and so +fitly came commissions from Cologne, Lubeck, and Hamburg. For the great +Hospital in this last commercial town was painted the large oil-picture, +_Christ's Agony in the Garden_. This impressive composition represents +the Saviour kneeling; the head is bowed in anguish, the hands are raised +in ecstasy; below, the three disciples lie asleep, and in the glory of +the upper sky amid rolling clouds appears as a vision the angel bearing +the cross. I paid a visit to Hamburg in order to judge of a work of +which I could find but slight mention. Its characteristics are just what +might have been anticipated. The drawing is studious, the expression +intense, the execution feeble; in short, the technique becomes wholly +subordinate to the intention. The conception has Giottesque simplicity: +the shade of night brings solemnity, and the longer I stood before the +canvas the more I became impressed with the quietude and fervour of the +scene.[8] + +We find an epitome of Overbeck's mind and art in a lovely composition, +_Lo Sposalizio_. Count Raczynski had as far back as 1819 given a general +commission, and at first was proposed as a subject the _Sibyl_, for +which the drawing in sepia, dated 1821, now hangs in the Count's Gallery +in Berlin. The figure, pensive and poetic, resembles a mediaeval Saint +rather than a Sibyl. The painter afterwards found a more congenial theme +in _The Marriage of the Virgin_. The treatment is wholly traditional, +the style austerely pre-Raphaelite; the only expletive in the way of an +idea comes with attendant angels, lyres in hand. The work was not +delivered till 1836, in the meanwhile the first fire had died out, and +nature was thrust into the distance. The technique had not improved, the +material clothing becomes subject to the mental conception, thus are +eschewed _chic_ of touch and surface texture. The colour is +indescribable: it pertains neither to earth nor to heaven, and yet it +has more of dull clay than of iridescent light. What a misfortune that +the gem-like lustre of the early Italians escaped this modern disciple! +A thoroughly characteristic letter accompanied the picture. Overbeck +having shut himself out from the world, seeks for his creations a like +seclusion. He writes to Raczynski: "As you are wishing to send my +picture to the public exhibition in Berlin, I cannot refrain from +expressing my anxiety. Paintings of this kind appear to me not fitted to +be seen by the motley multitude usually gathered together in +exhibitions. The general public are almost sure to measure wrongly works +like this, for as the eye is attracted to outward means and is engaged +on technical splendours, pictures in which these qualities are held in +subordination to higher aims cannot but sink into the shade. The +spectator is not in the mood to honour a spiritual subject which has +been thought out from a spiritual side. The place in which this picture +should be seen is a chapel, or some such peaceful spot removed from +disturbing surroundings."[9] + +I now wish to direct the reader's attention to _The Triumph of Religion +in the Arts_, otherwise _The Magnificat of Art_, or _The Christian +Parnassus_, or the triumph of Mariolatry. This large and elaborate +composition embodied the artist's best thoughts for ten years in the +prime of life, from 1831 to 1840. Accompanying the work was a written +explanation, which comprises a confession of Overbeck's art faith.[10] +The Madonna, with the Infant in her arms, sits enthroned in the upper +half of the canvas, and around, in mid-heaven, are ranged prophets, +evangelists, and saints. On the earth below stand some sixty painters, +sculptors, and architects; the heads as far as possible are taken from +authentic portraits. In the midst is a fountain, the upper waters rising +into the sky, the lower falling into two basins beneath. The painter +explains his meaning as follows: "The fountain in the centre is the +emblem of the well of water springing up into eternal life, thus +denoting the heavenward direction of Christian Art as opposed to the +idea of the ancients, who represented the stream as flowing downwards +from Mount Parnassus. Every manifestation of art therefore is honoured +so far only as it looks towards heaven. The fountain descends into two +mirrors: the upper one reflects heaven, the lower receives earthly +objects; thus is indicated the twofold character of art, which, on the +one hand, in its spiritual essence comes with every good thought from +above, and which, on the other, is derived from the outward forms of +nature. This twofold sphere of art is signified by the position assigned +to the assembled artists in relation to the two mirrors of water." +Overbeck next proceeds to expound his pictorial judgments. He gives +Raphael a white robe as symbolic of universal genius, "for as white +light contains the seven prismatic colours, so does Raphael's art unite +all the qualities we gaze on with wonder." Michelangelo sits apart on a +fragment of antique sculpture, his back turned alike on the Fountain and +the Madonna. I once ventured to ask Overbeck in his studio for some +explanation of this harsh judgment; he calmly but firmly replied that he +thought the verdict according to the evidence. Still less mercy is shown +to the Venetians, and as for Correggio, he is stigmatised as utterly +lost. On the other hand, Fra Angelico, the Tuscan School, Durer, and the +brothers Van Eyck receive due reverence. But it has fairly been +questioned whether the majority of the sixty or more artists here +immortalised would thank the painter for his pains. The reading given to +historic facts is narrow, partial, not to say perverted, and could +content only such ultra critics as Rio, Montalembert, and Pugin. + +_The Triumph of Religion_[11] I have known for more than a quarter of a +century, and have heard much of its profundity, spiritualism, and +symbolism. But no critic will assign to the picture the first rank among +works of creative reason and imagination; the comparison has inevitably +been instituted with Raphael's _Disputa_, in the Vatican, to which it is +confessedly inferior. Historically, it finds a place sufficiently +honourable by the side of Francia and Pinturicchio. Its avowed merits +are considerable; its very scale and the vastness of the labour give +importance; the canvas extends to a breadth and height of about fifteen +feet. The composition, if not bold or masterly, is careful and +thoughtful, the drawing scholastic; the heads are wrought as biographic +studies, the draperies cast into balanced harmonies. The execution is +steady, without show or fling; the colour, as always, is the reverse of +alluring: Venetian splendours are eschewed in favour of pigments thin, +dull, and crude. Yet the technique has usual soundness; the materials +stand firm and unchanged. The picture has the advantage of a commanding +position in the handsome new gallery in Frankfort, and, notwithstanding +its defects and shortcomings, must be accounted as among the most +memorable achievements of the century. + +Overbeck made _The Triumph of Religion_ a propaganda of his pictorial +faith, and wrote his explanatory text for the special benefit of young +painters. The document concludes with the following emphatic and +affectionate appeal: "And now, my dear young friend and brother artist, +so ardently striving to excel in the Fine Arts, I have placed a picture +before you in which you may wander as in a garden. Here you see all the +great masters: behold how the future lies spread before you, like the +bright distance in this picture, so that you may be encouraged thereby +in your noble task. Strive to approach the great masters with all the +powers of your mind, but know that you can only reach their eminence by +steadily keeping in view the goal which I have endeavoured in this +painting to place before you. Several of the artists here assembled may +serve as warnings to you: the Venetians went astray as soon as they made +colouring the principal object of attraction, and so by degrees they +sank in sensuality. The effeminate Correggio proceeded in this career at +a more rapid rate, until he had cast aside every restraint of modesty +and morality, and gave himself up to unbridled voluptuousness.[12] +Michael Angelo set up the antique as an object of idolatry, and Raphael +was tempted to taste the forbidden fruit, and so the sin of apostasy in +the fine arts became manifest. In after times, indeed, various attempts +have been made to elevate the arts; but as no remedy was applied to the +source of the evil, the result proved on the whole unsuccessful. This is +also the reason why none of the celebrated masters of late times have +been introduced into our painting.[13] In conclusion, you may +unhesitatingly adopt as a principle that the fine arts can alone be +beneficial to man when, like the wise virgins, they go out to meet the +bridegroom in humility and modesty, with their lamps burning and fed +with the faith and the fear of God: only as such daughters of heaven are +they worthy of your love." + +Ten years of the painter's later period, reaching from 1843 to 1852, +were dedicated to the Life of Christ as recorded by the four +Evangelists. German artists of the modern time have revived the practice +of the old religious painters of composing Biblical series, and such a +narrative is technically termed a "cyclus." Overbeck evolved three such +consecutive compositions--"The Gospels" in forty cartoons, "The +Sacraments" in seven, and "The Stations" in fourteen. The large drawings +for "The Gospels" or "Evangelists"[14] I was accustomed to see from time +to time while in progress within the studio; none were ever carried out, +as the artist might have hoped, in oils, or as wall pictures or +tapestries, but all, in common with most of his drawings, have been +widely diffused by means of engraving.[15] Overbeck was specially +qualified by his habits of mind and literary tastes and antecedents thus +to write off his thoughts in outline; his drawings may be compared to +"thinking aloud," and one scene after another reads as consecutive +sonnets bearing on continuous themes. The events depicted as a matter of +course fall into accustomed routine; they almost of necessity begin with +_The Annunciation_ and end with _The Ascension_. Yet Overbeck, while +inspired was not enslaved by his predecessors; often are presented novel +and even bold conceptions, as in _The Massacre of the Innocents_ (1843) +and _Barabbas released and borne in Triumph_ (1849). Such designs prove +an intellect neither servile nor sterile. Certain other compositions are +marred by affectation and sentimentality, traits of morbid moods +increasing with years, and which contrast strangely with the healthiness +and robustness of the great old masters. Fitly have been chosen to +illustrate these pages _The Naming of St. John_ (1843), _Christ Healing +the Sick_ (1843), _Christ's Entry into Jerusalem_ (1849), _The +Entombment_ (1844), and _The Resurrection_ (1848). Two other +illustrations, _Christ in the Temple_ and Christ _falling under the +Cross_ show variations on the Gospel series. Overbeck may be compared to +certain fastidious writers who mature by endless emendations and +finishing touches; he loved to recur oft and again to favourite texts, +changing attitudes, adding or subtracting figures, episodes, or +accessories. His lifelong compositions are as a peopled world of the +elect and precious: many of the characters we claim as old +acquaintances; the figures come, go, and return again, changed, yet +without a break in personal identity. They move round a common centre; +Christ is their life; they are in soul and body Christian. + +These "Gospels" have taken a permanent place in the world's Christian +Art. If not wholly worthy of so large and grand a theme, they yet +scarcely suffer from comparison with like efforts by other artists. They +have hardly less of unction and holiness than Fra Angelico's designs, +while undoubtedly they display profounder science and art. That they +have nothing in common with the Bible of Gustave Dore is much to their +praise; on the other hand, that they lack the inventive fertility and +the imaginative flight of the Bible of Julius Schnorr indicates that +they fall short of universality. These Gospels, it may also be said, +pertain not to the Church militant, but to the Church triumphant; not to +the world at large, but to a select company of believers. They teach the +passive virtues--patience, resignation, long-suffering, and so far +realise the painter's ideal of earth as the portal to heaven. Certain +spheres were beyond his ken. The marriage of Cana did not for him flow +with the wine of gladness; he had no fellowship with the nuptial banquet +as painted by Veronese. His pencil shunned the Song of Miriam and the +Dance of the Daughter of Herodias; it could not pass, like the pen of +England's epic poet, with a light fantastic touch from "Il Penseroso" to +"L'Allegro;" his walk was narrow as a convent cloister; his art was +attuned to the sound of the vesper bell. + +Overbeck's modes of study and habits of work were like himself--secluded +and self-contained. His strength did not permit prolonged labour, and +his mind was easily put out of tune; yet by method and strict economy of +time he was able, as we have seen, to get through a very considerable +amount of work. Each day had its allotted task. He rose summer and +winter between five and six o'clock, and usually went to church; at +seven he took a simple breakfast, then entered his studio and worked on +till one. This was the hour for dinner, a frugal meal preceded by the +customary grace. After a little repose, action was resumed about +half-past two, and continued till four, or sometimes even to six. Then +came exercise, mostly a meditative walk; in early times, before the +habits of a recluse had grown confirmed, the painter enjoyed an +evening's stroll with choice spirits, such as Niebuhr and Bunsen, but in +later years he preferred his own communings, his thoughts turning upon +art or finding diversion only among the beauties of nature. Within the +house he became abstracted; he wandered about lost to outward +surroundings, and would brook no interruption. In the winter evenings, +at least in later life, he relaxed so far as to join in some table game; +but his hours were early, he supped at eight, then retired to his room +for meditation, and was always in bed by ten. General family prayers +were not the order of the household; the constant habit was individual +devotion in private. The Pope took a fatherly care over the pious +artist, and granted him privileges permitted only to the few. And +Overbeck was on his part strict and zealous in all Church functions, and +neglected no means of building up the Christian life. Each day in fact +was so nicely apportioned between religion and art, that the morning and +the evening worship blended indissolubly with the midday work. + +The bodily and mental aspect of Overbeck is well known. I myself had the +privilege of first seeing the painter when in the Cenci Palace, as far +back as the year 1848. My journal describes a man impressive in +presence, tall and attenuated in body, worn by ill-health and suffering, +the face emaciated and tied round by a piece of black silk. The mind had +eaten into the flesh; the features were sorrow-laden. The voice sank +into whispers, the words were plaintive and sparse; noiselessly the +artist glided among easels bearing pictorial forms austere as his own +person, meekly he offered explanations of works which embodied his very +soul, timidly sought retreat and passed as a shadow by--the emblem of an +art given in answer to prayer and pertaining to two worlds. + +The painter, as drawn or described by himself and others, presents an +interesting psychological study: no historic portrait reveals closer +correspondence between the inner and the outer man. Cornelius delineated +his friend at the age of twenty-three: the type is ascetic and aesthetic +after the pre-Raphaelite pattern affected by the Nazarites. Fuhrich, one +of the fraternity, describes his first impressions: on entering the +studio he beheld a tall, spare figure, noble in head, the hair flowing +over smooth temples to the shoulders, the forehead reflective, the calm +eye "soul-full," the whole aspect that of "inner living." It is added, +"at once I felt a soul fulfilment." Yet another artist-disciple, Edwin +Speckter,[16] also leaves a graphic record penned in 1831 as follows: "A +melancholy and heart-moving impression has Overbeck made upon me: I +beheld a tall, spare man, with thin, light hair, shadowed by a black +cap, whose eyes looked forth sadly, as with an expression of unutterable +suffering. His mouth contracted at each word into a forced yet sweet +smile. He looked just as a timid prisoner, who dreads in every corner to +see a spy. Yet in all his speech and ways appeared wondrous humility, +modesty, and kindly geniality, which, however, did not attract, but in +a strange manner repelled. I hardly dared to open my mouth, and only +spoke softly and by way of inquiry. Freely to impart my mind as with +others was impossible. My breast felt oppressed, and truly I scarcely +knew what to say when he unceasingly begged pardon that he should dare +to show his works: he called them 'insignificant,' 'nothing,' esteemed +himself fortunate that people should choose to give commissions to so +unworthy an individual, only he pitied the patrons that they had not +fallen on a more capable man. And then when I asked if I might come +again, he replied, 'Good heavens! if I would give myself the trouble, he +should be only too delighted.' I could almost have laughed, but with +tears in my eyes." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: For further particulars as to Overbeck's wife, "Nina," see +'Erinnerungen und Leben der Malerin Louise Seidler,' Berlin, Verlag von +Wilhelm Hertz, 1875. According to this authority the young lady was the +illegitimate daughter of a gentleman of aristocratic family in Vienna, +from whom she received a dowry. She had come to Rome in search of +health, and possessing talents, accomplishments and charms, and being +withal a "fanatic Catholic," she won the affections of the impressible +painter. "The young couple," we are told, passed "a soul-satisfying" +honeymoon, and took up their abode in the Villa Palombara, near the +Baths of Diocletian. In the private collection of Herr Bockenheimer, +Frankfort, I have found an exquisite drawing, wherein the artist is said +to have depicted himself, his wife, and two children.] + +[Footnote 2: Mrs. Jameson, in 'The Legends of the Monastic Orders,' +illustrates the visions and ecstasies of St. Francis from the pictures +of Giotto and others down to Domenichino. Coming to our times, the only +work found worthy of such companionship is that of Overbeck. The modern +German does not suffer by comparison with the old Italian masters. The +fresco was finished 1830; shortly after, an earthquake visited the spot +and destroyed a large portion of the church, but _The Vision of St. +Francis_ remained intact. The cartoon for the picture is in the Library, +Lubeck, framed, hung, but badly seen. I examined and noted it October +1880. It is in chalk, on paper mounted on canvas; the form is lunette, +the base about 20 feet broad; the figures are life-size. The heads, +hands and draperies are thoroughly studied in a broad, large manner. The +work when exhibited in Munich in 1831, on the artist's visit to Germany, +obtained high commendation. The oil study made for the colour is now in +the Leipzig Museum: measurement, 2 feet 3 inches by 2 feet 7 inches. The +cartoon has been lithographed by Koch: the fresco itself is +photographed.] + +[Footnote 3: Portrait of _Vittoria Caldoni_, oil, on canvas, nearly +life-size, about 3 feet by 2 feet. _Holy Family_, about 4 feet 6 inches +by 3 feet: oil, on rough Roman canvas, signed "F. O. 1825": better +colour than usual: in good condition, but, like many pictures in the New +Pinakothek, revived by the Pettenkofer process: the beautiful engraving +by Felsing has a sale quite unusual for Overbeck. "Italia und Germania," +about 3 feet 5 inches by 2 feet 9 inches, oil, on canvas: manner hard +and dry: lithographed by F. Piloty.] + +[Footnote 4: See 'Historisch-Politische Blatter fur das Katholische +Deutschland,' before quoted.] + +[Footnote 5: _The Death of St. Joseph_, oil, on canvas, 3 feet by 2 feet +3 inches, was at last completed 1836, and appeared two years later in +the Munich Exhibition: the price was less than 100_l._ A small drawing +for the picture was, with others in the possession of Emilie Linder, +lithographed for devotional purposes: the lady with characteristic +generosity sent the proceeds of publication to the painter. On her death +in 1867 her collection went by bequest to the Basle Museum, where are +conserved, besides _The Death of St. Joseph_, ten drawings in pencil. +Among the last are _God appearing to Elias on Mount Horeb_, _The Finding +of Moses_, _The Israelites gathering Manna_, _The Madonna and St. Joseph +worshipping the Infant Jesus_, _Christ found in the Temple_, and _The +Awakening of Jairus's Daughter_. Of the last I have met with two other +examples. The engraving, _Christ in the Temple_, illustrating this +volume, is from the drawing in this collection.] + +[Footnote 6: The principal drawings at Stift Neuburg have been mentioned +in previous pages. I will now add from notes taken on the spot: Portrait +of Cornelius by Overbeck and a companion portrait on the same paper of +Overbeck by Cornelius. Pencil: 1 foot 4 inches by 1 foot 3 inches. This +joint handiwork, presented to their friend on the eve of his leaving +Rome for Germany, bears the following inscription: "In Remembrance of +our friend C. F. Schlosser, from F. Overbeck and J. P. Cornelius. Rome, +16 March, 1812." The latest drawing in the collection, date 1836, +represents Christ bearing the Lamb: the Saviour opens His mantle and +shows a flaming heart. This is one of the first signs of the painter's +ultimate tendency to exalt dogmas and legends at the expense of +essential truth and beauty. Some of the chief drawings at Stift Neuburg +have been published in photography by Bruckmann, Munich.] + +[Footnote 7: Overbeck's letter on the opening of the tomb in the +Pantheon is published in Passavant's 'Life of Raphael.'] + +[Footnote 8: _Christ's Agony in the Garden_ is on canvas, 7 feet wide by +11 feet high: figures size of life: without signature or date: the +manner is that of the middle period: the year I believe to be between +1831 and 1835. The system of colour, though not without the depth and +solemnity of the early schools of Lombardy, is that peculiar to the +religious art of modern Germany: it is dull, heavy and opaque. I would +quote as an interesting proof of nature-study, still maintained at this +pronounced period, a foreground plant and flower exquisitely drawn and +affectionately painted. The picture is seen to utmost disadvantage: the +cold and poverty-stricken surroundings are those usually deemed +appropriate in Lutheran Germany.] + +[Footnote 9: The present position of _The Marriage of the Virgin_ in the +Raczynski Gallery, Berlin, has just those "disturbing surroundings" +which the painter dreaded. It is crowded among discordant works, and is +hung so high that I had to ask for a ladder to examine its quality and +condition. The oil pigments remain sound save some small surface cracks. +The size is about 6 feet by 4 feet. The modest price paid by the +munificent patron, and for which he received the artist's grateful +acknowledgments, was somewhat under 100_l_. sterling. Surely Overbeck +did not paint for filthy lucre.] + +[Footnote 10: See account of 'Religion glorified by the Fine Arts,' +written by the painter himself and translated by Mr. John Macray: +published by Ryman, Oxford; 2nd edition, 1850.] + +[Footnote 11: The picture has been engraved by Amsler, and is also +photographed. The cartoon is in the Carlsruhe Gallery, framed and hung: +it measures about 12 feet wide by 14 feet high: it is in charcoal or +chalk, on squares of whity-brown paper mounted on canvas. This drawing +is remarkable for thoroughness in form and character; indeed, it is just +what a cartoon should be. Countless preliminary studies of separate +figures and draperies must have preceded it. Overbeck in a letter, 28th +December, 1839, to Emilie Linder mentions three cartoons or studies. One +large one being the above. A second smaller, 4 feet 8 inches square, in +sepia, on canvas. This I examined October, 1880, in the National +Gallery, Berlin: the execution in parts is poor. The work had been sent +for sale, but was not purchased. The third sketch is described by the +artist as different in proportions and composition. It is in black chalk +and pencil on red paper. The painter names L100 as the price: he +received L1300 for the picture.] + +[Footnote 12: Surely Overbeck is unjust to the masterpieces of Correggio +in Parma and Dresden, including two Holy Families, _Il Giorno_ and _La +Notte_. He likewise must have forgotten Titian's religious pictures in +Venice and Vienna, _The Assumption_ and sundry Holy Families. The "young +artist" has to remember that a picture is different from a homily: that +art has to be valued for her own sake, that drawing, composition, light, +shade and colour are indispensable elements in every art work. Overbeck +shirks the stern truth that the first duty of a painter is to paint.] + +[Footnote 13: It is difficult to remain tolerant of such intolerance. +Why does not Overbeck declare plainly that Ary Scheffer is excluded +because he was a Protestant? As spectators a place in the picture is +assigned to Cornelius, Veit, and to Overbeck himself, all Roman +Catholics, whilst Schnorr, as a Protestant, is deemed unworthy to +appear. It is interesting to observe that Overbeck's darling son is +introduced in the character of a young Englishman.] + +[Footnote 14: The cartoons for the Gospels, originally made for an art +dealer in Prague, were afterwards acquired by the late Baron Lotzbeck of +Weihern, near Munich, and are now in the possession of the son, the +present Baron: they are framed and protected under glass.] + +[Footnote 15: See 'L'Evangile Illustre: Quarante Compositions de +Frederic Overbeck: gravees par les meilleurs Artistes de l'Allemagne:' +Schulgen, Dusseldorf and Paris. Overbeck had an aversion to the heavy +and mechanical schools of engraving; he objected to meaningless masses +of shadow and to the multiplication of lines inexpressive of form. +Accordingly these engravings from the Gospels, in common with other +plates from the master, possess merits the opposites to such defects. +Like the original drawings, they are chiefly dependent on outline, and +even their slightness is not without the advantage of suggestiveness. +Four illustrations here are facsimiles of the engravings.] + +[Footnote 16: See 'Briefe eines deutschen Kunstlers aus Italien, aus den +nachgelassenen Papieren von Edwin Speckter.' Leipzig: Brockhaus, 1846. +Also see 'Bunte Blatter, von A. W. Ambros.' Leipzig: Leuckart, 1872.] + + + + + CHAPTER IV. + + LATE WORKS--CONCLUSION--THE PAINTER AND HIS ART. + + +Overbeck, as we have seen, deliberately laid out his life for +tranquillity; but not sheltered, as Fra Angelico, in a cloister, his +serene mind was at times clouded by trouble. First came the death of his +son, then he lost a brother, and afterwards was bereaved of his wife. +All accounts tell that the darling son, Alfons Maria, inherited the rare +gifts of the father, and unhappily also was a sharer in like bodily +frailty. He had been reared with tenderest solicitude, in the hope that +he might carry on the good work. The profession chosen was that of +architecture, an art which the Christian painter felt to be of a "mystic +nature," being something "musical," and "the visible emblem of religious +enthusiasm." But the bright promise was soon darkened: the youth died in +the autumn of 1840, at the early age of eighteen. The father in +overwhelming sorrow recounts, in a letter to Emilie Linder, how he had +watched over the sick bed, and had snatched up a pencil by the quarter +of an hour to assuage his grief. The boy was dutiful, and filled with +filial love--he was so good that the people called him a saint. The +stricken parent turned to art as "a crutch to support his lameness, and +as a solace to his tears." + +The picture of _The Entombment_, or rather _The Pieta_, in Lubeck, tells +of the mind's heavy burden. In 1837 an association had been formed, and +money subscribed among friends and admirers, who desired that the native +city should possess some work worthy of the painter's renown. In 1842, +on the completion of the first sketch and the cartoon, a letter arrived +in Lubeck, saying that the grief through which the artist had passed was +thrown into a composition that expressed the uttermost anguish of the +soul. And again, in 1846, on the completion of the work, the Christian +man writes, praying that this "lamentation over the death of the Son of +God may arouse in the spectator true faith and repentance. May this +painting, begun in tears for my own and only son, and finished in grief +for the loss of my dear brother, draw tears from the eyes of Him who +shed not only tears, but blood, in order that His death might be our +life. Such aim have I always in my art, without which it would seem +idle, indeed blasphemous." + +_The Pieta_[1] was exhibited in Rome, and friendly criticisms were +followed by final touches, with the filial intent to make a worthy +offering to the parental city. In March, 1846, Overbeck announces, in +the most modest terms, that the labour of love had at length been +dispatched to Lubeck, and, much to his joy, a quiet side chapel of the +choir of the Marien Kirche was chosen for its resting-place. The +impression on entering this secluded spot, shut in by a locked gate, is +almost startling; the eye gazes, as it were, on the actual scene: the +figures are life-size; the pictorial style is, perhaps, all the more +persuasive because it belongs to a remote time--nothing modern breaks +the spell of sacred associations. The spectator is transported to a +sphere super-mundane, and altogether religious. The dead Christ, well +modelled and a fine piece of flesh painting, lies stretched on the +ground in a white winding-sheet, and, as sometimes with the old +painters, the body seems not dead but sleeping, as if expectant of +resurrection. The composition is strictly traditional, indeed the +_Pieta_ of Perugino in the Pitti Palace has been implicitly followed: +around are the holy women weeping, with disciples and Nicodemus and +Joseph of Arimathaea. Every head, hand, and drapery, are thoroughly +studied. Dark rocks, lofty cypresses, and distant hills, make up a +landscape which adds solemnity and depth of colour. Within a few +minutes' walk of the Marien Kirche and this _Pieta_ still remains +Memling's masterpiece, which, as already related, had deeply impressed +the youthful painter while yet in the Lubeck home, but allegiance had +been long, we know, transferred from old German to Italian art, and +accordingly the style adopted recalls well-remembered compositions by +Francia, Fra Bartolommeo, and Perugino. Not a single new motive +intrudes; in fact, Overbeck no more desired a new art than a new +religion; for him the old remained unchangeably true,--sacred characters +were handed down immutably as by apostolic succession; he would +rearrange an attitude, but feared to lose personal identity; he desired +that this _Pieta_ should awaken such holy associations as environ old +pictures. + +Overbeck received a commission from a Yorkshire squire, Mr. Rhodes, to +paint an altar-piece for the Protestant church of St. Thomas, in Leeds, +recently built from the design of Mr. Butterfield. Naturally the +Incredulity of the Apostle was chosen as the subject, and the picture[2] +reached completion in 1851. The composition is in no way out of keeping +with the Anglican Church; it is without taint of Romanism; but we are +told by Ernst Forster, the Munich critic,[3] that "people were not well +pleased with the work," at all events it never reached its destined +place. Mr. Rhodes had brought the picture to England from Overbeck's +studio, and being for disposal, it was offered to Mr. Beresford Hope, +who gladly became the owner, at the price of 300_l_., the modest sum +asked by the artist. The scene is thrown upon canvas with the painter's +habitual simplicity, brevity, and breadth. Christ in commanding, yet +benignant, attitude, with arm uplifted, utters the words: "Reach hither +thy hand and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but +believing." The Apostle reverently approaches. Beyond stretches a +distant landscape with a mountain-height that might be mistaken for the +crested summit of Soracte. The lines of composition flow symmetrically, +the sentiment has quiet dignity, with that sense of the divine presence +which seldom fails the painter. The picture hangs in the drawing-room of +Mr. Hope's town-house, and, though painted for a church, conforms to +domestic uses, not being "too bright or good for human nature's daily +food." The personation of the Saviour when once seen will not be +forgotten; the figure, indeed, was cherished by the artist, for the +motive with slight variation is repeated in _The Vocation of the +Apostles James and John_ (_see_ Illustration), and again in _The +Sacrament of Marriage_. Overbeck had none of the modern unrest which +seeks novelty for its own sake; as a Christian artist, his growth was +that of grace; and, if tested here and elsewhere by the worthiness of +his conception of the God-Man, no painter attained a more heavenly +ideal. It is hard to realise on earth a more perfect divinity than seen +in the design _Feed my Sheep_. _The Incredulity of St. Thomas_ has been +exhibited in England twice; first in 1853, in the Royal Academy, where, +I remember, it was honoured with a conspicuous place in the large room; +afterwards, in 1857, it was seen in the Manchester Art Treasures. As far +as I know, it is the only large and important work of the master +submitted to the English public. + +Overbeck, thirteen years after the death of his son, was in 1853 bereft +of his wife, who had been his companion and caretaker for more than +thirty years. She died suddenly, yet, as her husband thankfully records, +with all the consolations the soul could desire. She had in the morning +been to church and taken the sacrament; she was then seized with +difficulty of breathing, but, on reaching home, revived, and raised her +voice to the praise and glory of God; after, she grew worse, desired to +see the priest, received extreme unction, and so died. + +The good painter, when the help-mate of his life was taken away, felt +utterly desolate and disabled. He had never been accustomed to look +after the house; some thirty poor families are said to have been +dependent on his bounty; but as for himself he took little thought, and +all he desired was to be saved from mundane cares. In Rome there +happened to be a certain family of Hoffmanns, who, like the painter, had +forsaken Protestantism for Catholicism. They were endowed with the +worldly faculties in which the Christian artist was wanting, and so a +close relationship had conveniently grown up. Overbeck, on the death of +his wife, being absolutely incapable of getting on alone, arranged to +live with this family; moreover, he adopted Madame Hoffmann, a lady of +forty, as his daughter, and the adoption included the husband and the +children. They seem to have made him comfortable, and letters exist +which give expression to his gratitude. They, on their side, reaped +their reward, inasmuch as on the death of the good artist they came into +the possession of the contents of his studio, his papers, and +correspondence, moneys, and all other properties. After the aforesaid +family arrangement, the blood relations found little favour, and all who +bore the name of Overbeck were cut off without a shilling. + +Earthly trouble did but turn the painter's gaze heavenwards, and his +art, which in time of trial came as consolation, grew all the more +spiritual as it passed through waters of affliction. Few painters, even +in the good old days, obtained so sympathetic a public. Belief in a +mission begat like faith in others, and so solicitations came for +drawings and pictures far in excess of available time and strength. +Certain commissions could not be entertained, secular subjects had been +long eschewed, religion and the Church were alone accounted worthy of +service. Therefore, in genial mood, was the great picture for Cologne +Cathedral undertaken and carried out. The work occupied no less than +nine years; the cartoon was already in course of preparation in 1846, +and the picture reached completion in 1855. But, as with other +engagements, the negotiations and preliminary correspondence extended +over a longer period. Thus, as far back as 23rd August, 1829, Overbeck, +while working on the Assisi fresco, writes from Santa Maria degli Angeli +to his friend Mosler, stating that the Dusseldorf Kunst-Verein wish for +some picture; but prior engagements stand in the way: he foresees that +on the return to Rome he will find his studio crowded with works begun, +but still unfinished, besides sketches of all sorts and sizes for +pictures not even commenced. He therefore asks for delay, and ends with +apologies for not writing more on the parental plea that "though it is +Sunday, I have long given my promise to my boy Alfons, whose tenth +birthday is to-day, that he shall have a ride on a donkey, and I am all +the more obliged to keep my word because my fresco work here compels me +for the moment to neglect him. We are all, thank God, very well, and +enjoy a thousand blessings in this abode of Paradise." Three months +later he writes under mistaken impressions as to the character of the +commission; he wishes to know the architectural style of the church, and +hopes it may be Gothic; he desires accurate measurements, because the +picture must appear to belong to its destined place, and then ends in +the following characteristic terms: "I repeat once more that the +commission fills me with utmost pleasure, but to you I must confide my +great anxiety, that I fear this picture is destined for a Protestant +church, as I hear it is to be for some newly-built church. Should this, +indeed, be the case, then pray try to give the whole thing another +direction, as such a commission would not suit me at all, and to refuse +it would be very disagreeable to me." + +Overbeck's visit to Cologne, in 1831, naturally led to further +conferences concerning the picture for the Cathedral. The proposal, at +first, was that a triptych on a gold ground, in a Gothic frame, should +be painted for the high altar. Drawings were prepared, the general +scheme was approved by Cornelius, and the Archbishop gave his assent. +But objections having been raised on historic or archaeologic grounds, +the pictorial reredos was abandoned in favour of the present stone altar +table. The artist felt deeply disappointed, and craved the prayers of +his friend Steinle, who was engaged on the decoration of the choir. +Fortunately, the services of Overbeck were only transferred from the +high altar to the Madonna chapel, renovated to receive _The Assumption_ +commissioned to be painted. The cartoon was prepared and approved, and +while engaged on the work the artist expressed himself supremely happy; +he had no higher ambition than to be found worthy of a place in the +great Cathedral. + +_The Assumption of the Madonna_[4] is suited to its surroundings; it is +in keeping with the Gothic structure and decorations, and in +companionship with old triptychs and other works which carry the mind +back to remote ages. The composition stands forth as a vision of the +imagination; from the darkness of the grave into the light of the upper +sky rises the Queen of Heaven, borne upwards on angels' wings; midway +sustained by clouds are the adoring host, comprising Adam, Eve, Abraham, +and King David; on the ground below are seen, in miniature, the +disciples around the empty tomb. The whole conception is in perfect +accord with the rites and ceremonies of the Church; while looking at the +picture and listening to the voices in the choir, the harmonies between +form and sound seem fitly attuned. + +Overbeck, on the completion of the Cologne picture, revisited Germany +for the second and last time. On the 20th July, 1855, he left Rome, +proceeded to Florence, thence by way of Switzerland reached Frankfort, +and extended his journey as far as Dusseldorf. In Cologne he stayed some +weeks, and a festival, with usual laudatory speeches, was given in his +honour. I happened to encounter the painter during his sojourn; I could +hardly believe my eyes when I discovered the venerable artist gazing +with accustomed placidity at Rubens's brutal representation of _The +Crucifixion of St. Peter_, head downwards. With reverence I approached +the great master, and received a kindly shake of the hand. Overbeck on +the return-journey passed a quiet month at Mayence; he also once more +saw his old friends at Stift Neuburg, near Heidelberg. In Frankfort many +sympathetic hours were spent with his attached companion Steinle, whose +elevated works proved a renewed delight, and whose happy family circle +recalled his own joys and losses. The town of Spires also received a +visit, the inducement being Schraudolph's extensive frescoes, then in +progress within the Cathedral. Posterity has reason to lament that these +important works were not entrusted to the chief of Christian painters. +Some further weeks passed pleasantly among congenial minds in Munich, +but friends were grieved to mark growing infirmities. Overbeck had +reached the age of sixty-six, and Emilie Linder writes sorrowfully, that +he was the only person over whose death she could rejoice, because all +pertaining to the body had become a painful burden. Even the +affectionate demonstrations of his countrymen were too much for him, and +so gladly he turned his steps homewards. Yet not without lingering +regrets did he journey southwards, and on reaching the summit of the +Brenner he writes: "I turned round once more and gave, through the +streams flowing northwards, a last greeting to my German land." After +four months' absence, home comforts brought rest to his troubled mind. + +Overbeck, after the death of his wife in 1853, left the Cenci Palace and +went to dwell in the more quiet region of the Esquiline Hill, near the +church of Santa Maria Maggiore. Later on he removed to the house in +which he died, belonging to a convent, in the Via Porta Pia on the +Quirinal Hill, near to the little church of San Bernardo, where he +worshipped and lies buried. I remember the sequestered dwelling on the +Esquiline, lying away from the road in one of those Italian wildernesses +called a garden or a vineyard. The surroundings were inspiring; the eye +wandered among churches and ruins, and beyond stretched the Roman +Campagna, spanned by aqueducts and bounded by the Alban Hills, with +Rocca di Papa, the painter's country retreat. The studio, which on +Sundays continued to be crowded with strangers from all countries, had +little in common with the ordinary run of painting rooms. Showy +sketches, picturesque costumes, gay carpets and draperies, which +commonly make a fashionable lounge, were wholly wanting. Like the studio +of Steinle in Frankfort, all was in keeping with an art not dependent on +outward materials, but reliant on inward thought. Around were ranged +compositions embodying ideas, cartoons and drawings in no way +decorative, but simple and austere studies of form in light and shade, +or slightly tinted. At this period were thus evolved the pictorial +series of the _Via Crucis_ and _The Seven Sacraments_. Turning from +these creations to the painter himself, the visitor might be tempted to +indulge in psychological speculations touching the processes whereby the +spirit of the man passed into objective shape. More and more the old and +solitary master withdrew his affections from earthly concerns, he +approached the close of life as the sun which sets to rise on a new day, +and his art breathed the atmosphere of those pure regions where his +beloved ones were at rest. + +In the summer time was usually sought some country abode, not for +remission of labour, but for refreshment through change of scene amid +the beauties of nature. Overbeck, in 1856, was full of work, and in the +autumn he journeyed to Perugia, and took as his travelling companions +the small drawings of the _Via Crucis_. There, in the cradle of Umbrian +art, in the presence of Perugino and Raphael, he carried out the scenes +of _The Passion_. In the hill country of Perugia his thoughts turned to +the hills round about Jerusalem, olive gardens spoke of the Garden of +Gethsemane, a land lovely, yet sad, told of Him who trod the Via +Dolorosa. The painter divided the day between the practice of his art, +Church functions, and social intercourse; he revisited the scenes of his +labours at Assisi, and rejoiced the German Sisterhood of St. Francis by +a visit. The next year the picturesque district of Ariccia was chosen +for summer sojourn, with the advantage of Cornelius within the distance +of a walk. The following autumn the two old friends revisited the spot. +Here the water-colour drawings of the _Via Crucis_, or _The Stations_, +were with earnest solicitude brought to completion. + +_The Stations_ in "the history of our Lord" have been accustomed to +comprise Christ's last sufferings, and in their symbolic meaning +"represent the way to Calvary through which the believer is typically +supposed to enter into the inner and holier part of the Church." Such +compositions are almost indispensable to every Roman Catholic place of +worship, however humble; therefore Overbeck, desiring that his art +should at all seasons furnish aids to devotion, designed these fourteen +stations on the Via Dolorosa. According to precedent, the series begins +with _Jesus Condemned_, and ends with _The Entombment_. The compositions +were elaborated in two forms, the one as cartoons, the other as +water-colour drawings.[5] The treatment is, of course, traditional, and +the general style does but suggest the line of criticism with which the +reader must by this time be familiar; more than ever we here encounter +sermons for the edification of the faithful rather than works appealing +to the artist. The notes which a few years since I made before the +drawings in the Vatican read somewhat severe, yet I ought hardly to +withhold the impressions left on the mind. Utmost devotion and sincerity +will be taken for granted, but I found that the excessive striving after +religious feeling degenerated into morbid affectation and spiritual +spasm, that sentiment passed into sentimentality, and that simplicity +scarcely escaped childishness. Throughout became painfully apparent the +lack of physical sinew and dramatic force; the characters, not being +modelled on the life, wanted truth to nature; they were afflicted with a +bodily frailty and mental infirmity wholly unequal to the tragic +situation. These shortcomings in works of noblest motive may be ascribed +to two causes: first, advancing age, with increasing loss of power; +secondly, the confirmed habit of slighting art and ignoring nature in +order to magnify some favourite dogma. Thus the divine painter in late +years missed his aim and marred his work. + +These reflections receive confirmation in _The Seven_ _Sacraments_, +compositions which are triumphs of faith at the expense of art. The +painter, however, in fairness, must be allowed to speak for himself. "I +must," he writes, "first set forth what my conception of art is. Art to +me is as the harp of David, whereupon I would desire that Psalms should +at all times be sounded to the praise of the Lord. For when earth and +sea and everything that therein is, when Heaven and all the powers of +Heaven unite in extolling their Creator, how can man fail to join with +every faculty and gift his Maker has endowed him with in this universal +hymn of thanksgiving? And especially how can one of the noblest +attributes he possesses--the creative talent revealed in art--fail to +acknowledge that its highest glory and noblest end consist in offering +in art's own peculiar language Psalms and Songs of Praise to the Lord? +So precisely as Psalms of Praise would I wish to be accepted my seven +representations of the Sacraments, which, as so many fountains of grace, +the Church causes abundantly and ceaselessly to flow. These mercies of +God are the subjects of my seven pictures. As regards their style and +execution, they may be compared to tapestries after the manner of the +Arazzi of Raphael, such as it is customary to display in Italy on feast +days for the adornment of churches, and serving for the instruction of +the people in a language all can understand. Similar tapestries might, +in a more favourable time than the present, have been wrought from these +representations, but they appear now only as designs preparatory to +their possible completion some day in fresco or tempera."[6] + +Biblical history received ample exposition in numerous accessory +compositions. Each of _The Seven Sacraments_ was surrounded by a +predella, a frieze, and two side borders. Some of these long spaces +dilated into several themes, and thus the total number of subsidiary +subjects falls little short of forty. The foliated and floral ornament +in style is not Raphaelesque, but more allied to early Gothic; the +manner is graceful but feeble. The scheme embodies types in the Old +Testament with their fulfilment in the New; both conjoined are brought +to bear on the teachings of the Church concerning the Sacraments. Some +of the analogies may appear, at least to outsiders, rather fanciful and +far-fetched. Yet, the mystic meanings thrown around the singularly +lovely composition of _Matrimony_ satisfy at least the poetic sense. The +artist explains how in the frieze is seen the union of Christ with the +Church--the heavenly architype of marriage--celebrated by a choir of +angels. The predella presents a symbol from the Old Testament in Tobias, +who, under divine guidance, obtains a companion for life. One +side-border exemplifies the first institution of matrimony in Paradise; +angels above, in embrace, are scattering flowers. On the opposite side +an angel showers down thorns, and on the ground beneath lies the dead +Saviour, signifying that marriage through suffering obtains its +consecration. The painter ends with the closing prayer that "these seven +Psalms which I have sounded on my harp may exhibit the teaching of the +Church in its beauty and sublimity, and thus do honour to God, to whom +alone are due glory and praise in time and in eternity. Amen." + +Neither _The Seven Sacraments_ as works of art, nor the printed notes +thereto as treatises in theology, have been accepted by the world +favourably. Even within the Roman Catholic Church they are deemed rather +ultra; unfortunately the painter could not see when and where his art +became an outrage on the common sense of mankind. His treatment of _Holy +Communion_ in these _Sacraments_, as well as in sundry other designs, is +an instance of the way in which he pushed full far his sacerdotalism. He +habitually departs from the treatment sanctioned by the great masters, +from Giotto to Leonardo da Vinci; in place of a long table whereat all +are seated is a small altar, before which the Apostles kneel; in lieu of +a supper, the cloth is laid with only a plate and chalice, and instead +of the breaking of bread among the disciples, Christ stands apart +elevating a wafer. Now, all religious controversy aside, most minds will +feel that, by thus substituting a fiction for a recorded fact, the +subject is spoilt in point of art. And herein I cannot but recall a +saying of Coleridge to the effect that he who begins by loving his Creed +more than Christianity will end "by loving his Church more than +truth."[7] + +Between the Christian artist and the head of the Church grew, as might +be expected, a bond of mutual respect and attachment. Overbeck and Pius +IX. had much in common; they were as brothers in affliction; the age was +unbelieving; they had fallen upon evil days; and each was sustained +alike by unshaken faith in the Church. Concerning _The Stations_, the +drawings of which are in the private rooms of the Vatican, the Pope +showed the liveliest interest, and wrote a letter to the artist full of +apostolic benedictions. He had also evinced his friendly regard by +giving sittings for his portrait. Afterwards, in 1857, came the +commission to paint, for the Quirinal Palace, the large tempera picture +representing Christ miraculously escaping from the Jews, who, according +to the Gospel of St. Luke, had "thrust him out of the city, and had led +him to the brow of the hill whereon the city was built, that they might +cast him down headlong." This astounding composition is the one step +from the sublime to the ridiculous; it represents Christ with the right +foot on the edge of a precipice, the left in the air on the heads of +small angels: it was intended to symbolise the Pope's escape from Rome, +and his subsequent return to the city; and further it expressly +signified the triumph of the spiritual over the temporal power.[8] While +the large and important work was in progress, Pius IX. paid a visit to +the painter in his studio, an event to the honour of modern art +comparable to the old stories touching Francis I. with Leonardo da Vinci +and Philip IV. in the painting-room of Velazquez. This abortive miracle +on canvas left on my mind, when seen in the studio, a very painful +impression, and sound critics--Zahn and others--pronounce the subject as +unpaintable, and the work most unfortunate. Overbeck had not the power +possessed by the old masters of carrying the imagination into the age of +miracle. + +I have been at some pains to make the account here given of the +painter's works exhaustive. My opportunities of observation have been +favourable, and yet, especially as no complete biography of the artist +has hitherto been published, some minor works may have escaped my +notice. Here, in conclusion, may fitly come a few additions. _The +Raising of Lazarus_, the exquisite drawing of which, now in the +Dusseldorf Academy, has already received notice, was, in 1822, painted +in oils. _The Death of St. Joseph_, before mentioned, was, in 1838, +reproduced for the private chapel of the newly created Bishop of +Algiers. Also worthy of mention are cartoons of _The Twelve Apostles_ +and of _The Four Evangelists_, for the Torlonia chapel at Castel +Gondolfo; a design, _Christ teaching the Lord's Prayer_, for a window in +the church of St. Katherine, Hamburg; sketches, including _The +Coronation of the Virgin_, for a cathedral in Mexico; likewise drawings +of the _Virtues_, also _Moses and the Daughters of Jethro_, the last +engraved by Gruner, and then in England, belonging to Lord Hatfield. +Also _The Vocation of St. John and St. James_, a pencil drawing in the +possession of Baron Lotzbeck, Schloss Weihern, near Munich. This +beautiful design has been chosen as one of the illustrations to this +volume. Few masters have been so largely engraved as Overbeck; scarcely +a picture or drawing of import exists that has not become thus widely +diffused. By the artist's own hand are reproduced, on copper, _St. +Philip Neri_, and a _Pilgrim_. In France were published the "Book of +Hours," and "The Imitation of Christ," severally illustrated from +designs by Overbeck. A pictorial art, chiefly reliant on form, and +expressly intended for the teaching and saving of man, was fitly thus +multiplied and disseminated. + +Numerous portraits of Overbeck, by himself and friends, give a +retrospective view of his character. Probably the earliest is a pencil +drawing in the Vienna Academy by the Viennese painter, Johann Scheffer +von Leonhardshoff; the date must be prior to 1810, and the age somewhere +about twenty. The head is remarkable, almost abnormal; the outlook on +the world is inquiring, querulous, and combative; the penetrative eyes +seem in search after undiscovered truth; the pursed-up mouth is prepared +for protest; the attenuated nose and contracted nostril betray austerity +and acerbity; the whole aspect is that of nervous irritability. The +spirit is still in unrest, having sought in vain for the ideal; and +unsatisfied yearnings already settle into moody sentiment and +melancholy. In these traits are clearly legible the painful perplexities +and the severe conflicts of the painter's first period. And like mental +states and bodily conditions are carried into the pencil likeness +already mentioned, taken in Rome by Cornelius some three years later: +for the moment the mind seems masked by a phlegmatic mass of German +clay; whatever might be light-giving in the inward man appears clouded. +This, as we have seen, was for the young painter a time of doubt and +difficulty, and the face remains as yet unillumined. The next known +portraits come at a long interval, and show marked changes, which tell +of deep and not wholly blissful experiences. In 1837, Carl Kuchler, who +made a series of portraits of German painters living in Rome, took and +engraved the likeness of Overbeck at the age of forty-eight. The head is +most striking and impressive; the coronal regions, the reputed abode of +the moral and religious faculties, rise in full development; the frontal +lobes of the intellect, with the adjacent territories of the +imagination, bespeak the philosopher and the poet, while the scant +circuit of the posterior organs gives slight sign of animal passion. The +mien is that of a mediaeval saint--austere, devout; the eyes steadfastly +gaze as on hidden mysteries, yet shine with spiritual radiance; the +brow, temple, and cheek are those of the child, yet thinker; all the +features have settled into meditative repose, gently shaded by +melancholy. Overbeck, at this time in close converse with Heaven, had +given himself unreservedly to Christian Art; hence this supremely ideal +head. The portrait, contributed to the autograph collection of artists' +heads in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, pleased neither the painter nor +any one else, yet it was carried out on the favourite doctrine of +uniting the inward with the outward man. The style is hard and dry, the +character that of starved asceticism; the expression is Jesuitical, and +actual traits are so exaggerated as barely to escape caricature. The +artist was painted by Carl Hoffmann, also, it is said, by Genelli and +Ernst Deger. The portraits in late life, whilst preserving personal +identity, betray somewhat painfully the inroads of age and ill health. +Rudolf Lehmann made a faithful study in 1853; Adolf Grass, an inmate in +the house, painted in oils a portrait in 1865; and Professor Bendemann, +in 1867, prevailed upon the diffident old man to give a sitting. Two +years later death entered the house, and Friedrich Geselschap, a friend +and artist from Dusseldorf, came a few hours after the eyes were closed, +and made a full-size chalk drawing of the head as it peacefully lay on +the pillow. This faithful transcript, now on the table before me, +scarcely sustains the statement of some writers, that the countenance +after death assumed a glorified aspect; but, whether living or dying, +peace, though not void of pain, is the pervading expression. + +Overbeck, after the goodly habit of the old masters, was fond of +introducing himself as a spectator in the sacred scenes he depicted, and +thus the above list of portraits is considerably extended. The painter +appears personally in _Christ's Entry into Jerusalem_; also, in company +with his friends Cornelius and Veit, he joins the general assembly of +artists in _The Triumph of Religion_. Again, in _The Gospels_ the devout +painter is present at the Crucifixion, bent on his knees, the hands +clasped, his eyes gazing on Christ upon the Cross. Overbeck was not thus +the egotist or a man craving for glory, but merely the humblest of +servants seeking some inconspicuous place among the followers of Christ, +and desiring to be numbered with God's elect. + +I have endeavoured, though perhaps very imperfectly, to lay before the +reader a picture of Overbeck as the artist and the man, and now little +remains save a few general conclusions. I have anxiously tried to +ascertain the painter's mode of work, and the successive steps by which +he matured his compositions. This inquiry has proved all the more +difficult, because drawings in their early stages were persistently kept +out of view. The artist had two studios, the one strictly private for +quiet incubation apart; the other public, wherein only finished products +were shown. The question is, how consummate designs such as _The +Gospels_ were elaborated. I find that Overbeck first revolved a subject +in his thoughts until he had formed a distinct mental conception; this +inward vision he would sometimes for months carry about with him, within +the house and in his walks abroad. At last, when it had taken shape, he +sketched out the idea with lead pencil on a small piece of paper; and, +just in proportion as the first process had been tentative and slow, so +was the final act swift and certain. In these supreme moments he had the +power of throwing off his innermost thoughts without aids from the outer +world: the lines flowed from his pencil rapidly when he had made up his +mind what to do, and the forms once set down were seldom changed. The +facility increased rather than lessened with years; thus we read, "At +the age of seventy-two I create with undiminished freshness and +pleasure." As soon as the first small sketch was complete, the usual +method was followed of squaring out the surface with lines, in order to +reproduce in charcoal, chalk, or sepia the design on the full scale +required--often the size of life. For the important figures, for the +heads, hands, and draperies, studies from the life were diligently made. +Such drawings and cartoons have been and are greatly prized by +connoisseurs; for example, _The Seven Years of Famine_ was acquired by +Sir Thomas Lawrence for his collection. The reader will understand how +difficult it was for the painter to find assistants who could help in +this directly personal work, in this concentration of individual +thought; hence the prolonged time needed, extending, as we have seen, to +periods of five or ten years. Separate studies of colour were also +sometimes, if not always, made. The ultimate stage of painting upon +canvas or wall was comparatively a mechanical process. + +Furthermore, we have to consider and make allowance for certain +technical notions of Overbeck and his school. The opinion upheld was +that the idea or mental conception constituted the chief value of any +art work, that outline or form was the direct language or vehicle of +such idea, and that colour, light, shade, surface-texture, or realism, +were subordinate, if not derogatory, elements. Thus it is that the works +of the master cannot be judged by ordinary standards: hence likewise the +drawings and cartoons are superior to the pictures. + +Especially does Overbeck's colour stand in need of explanation or +apology. In the first place we have to take into account how far the +artist was bound to tradition; we have, for instance, to bear in mind +that in painting _The Assumption_, he was enjoined by the Church to +clothe the Madonna in white. Then comes the whole question of symbolism, +or the inherent or accepted relation between colour and thought and +feeling. Now, I think it probable that Overbeck sacrificed harmonies +pleasing to the eye for the sake of arrangements that might inculcate +doctrines or impress emotions. Certain it is that he looked on colour as +something carnal: the example of the Venetian painters warned him +against passionate excess, and so as a religious artist he felt it a +duty to use sombre pigments, tertiary tints, and low, shadowy tones. +Thus much needs explanation, yet it must always be cause for regret that +Overbeck did not take for examples such masters of colour as Fra +Angelico and Perugino, and thus gain the heavenly radiance begotten of +religion. + +The art of Overbeck will live by its merits despite its defects; it is +vital and enduring in the three mental elements of thought, form, and +composition. The last he matured and mastered with the certainty of a +science and the beauty of an art. His compositions have the exactitude, +and occasionally the complexity, of geometric problems, neither are they +without the rhythm of a stanza, or the music of a song. + +How much and in what manner the art of Overbeck was due to direct +inspiration from heaven is not easy to determine. But, at all events, +the modern master, like his forerunners in the spiritual school of +Umbria, watched and waited, fasted, prayed, and painted. One who +observed him closely testifies how, while making the drawings for _The +Gospels_ and _The Seven Sacraments_, he was penetrated with the life of +Christ. From deep wells the infinite soul flowed into the finite mind, +and the art conceived in the spirit of prayer issued as a renewed prayer +to God. + +The reader, I trust, has formed a judgment as to the three-fold relation +in which Overbeck and his works stand to nature, to historic precedent, +and lastly, to inward consciousness or individual character. We have +seen that the notion prevalent in Rome, that the living model was wholly +discarded, is inaccurate; bearing on this moot point may be here told an +anecdote. It is related how one morning, when the artist was engaged on +the Tasso frescoes, in the Villa Massimo, he had need of the life for a +muscular arm, and so sallied forth into the neighbouring Piazza of the +Lateran and made appeal to some men who were breaking stones on the +road. One of the number, of amazing muscle, consented to sit, but, to +the disgust of the purist painter, the man turned out to be a public +executioner, who only took to stone breaking when slack of usual work. +Another story is to the effect that, one day a fellow of terrific aspect +entered the studio, declaring he was without food, and demanding +engagement as a model. He turned out a villain, and so the aversion grew +to coming in contact with common and unclean nature. Another reason +assigned for the non-employment of models is the lack of sufficient +strength to sustain protracted study from the life. Hence recourse to +other methods: for instance, both mental and pencil notes were taken of +casual figures and incidents in society or in the public streets. John +Gibson, the sculptor, cultivated a like habit. Also a remarkable memory, +of which much might be told, served as a storehouse of pictorial +materials. It is recounted now on Sunday evenings, after the reception +in the studio of fifty or a hundred guests, the meditative artist would +recall and describe the visitors one by one, and after many years, and +perhaps in a distant place, meeting some person, otherwise unknown, he +would say, "I remember to have seen that face once in my painting-room." +In like manner his memory was peopled with figures, whose acquaintance +he had made only in pictures: thus, when he came to paint _The +Assumption_ for Cologne Cathedral, he had recourse to the mental vision +of the Madonna, derived from an old Sienese panel, and, when charged +with the plagiarism, he replied: "The figure realises my idea, and I do +not see why I should search further." Thus, however, it came to pass +that he borrowed more and more from others, just in proportion as he +took less from nature. But in coming to a fair judgment, we have to +remember that the accidents in nature, and the grosser materialism in +man, were foreign to this super-sensuous art, the aim being to reach the +hidden meaning and the inner life. Hence the favourite practice of +placing and posing in the painting-room some well-chosen figure which +was quietly looked at, carefully considered, and taken in; thus the +irrelevant elements were eliminated, and only the essential truths +assimilated. This was for Overbeck the saving study of nature: he made +extracts and essences, elaborated generic types, and thus his art became +supreme in beauty. However, the beautiful is not always new, neither is +the new always beautiful. + +The painter's relation to the historic schools of Christian Art has been +so fully stated, that little more remains to be said. The old masters +were studied much in the same way as nature: their spirit was inhaled, +and just as John Gibson was accustomed to ask, What would the Greeks +have done? so Overbeck put himself in the place of the early Italian +painters, and desired that his pencil might be guided by their spirit. +Like Raphael, what he borrowed he made his own, and often added an +aspect and a grace peculiar to himself. A gallery of pictures was for +him what a well-stored library is to a literary student, who takes from +the shelves the author best supplying the intellectual food needed. The +method is not new or strange: Bacon teaches how the moderns inherit the +wisdom of the ancients, and surely if for art, as for learning, there be +advancement in store, old pictures, like old books, must give up the +treasure of a life beyond life. Overbeck in the past sought not for the +dead, but for the living and enduring. + +Given a painter's genius and surroundings, his art usually follows under +the law of cause and effect. Overbeck's pictures, as those of others, +yield under analysis as their component parts, nature plus tradition, +plus individual self. As to the individual man, we have found Overbeck +the poet and philosopher, the mystic, somewhat the sentimentalist, and, +above all, the devout Catholic. The character is singularly interesting, +and the products are unusually complex. He had forerunners and many +imitators, yet he stands alone, and were his pencil lost, a blank would +be felt in the realm of art. His genius was denied grandeur: he did not +rise to the epic, and scarcely expanded into the dramatic; his path was +comparatively narrow; his kingdom remained small, yet where he stands is +hallowed ground; his art is musical, altogether lyrical, yet toned with +pathos, as if the lamentations of The Holy Women at the Sepulchre +mingled with the angel-voices of The Nativity. The man and his work are +among the most striking and unaccustomed phenomena of the century, and +so far as his art is true to God, humanity, and nature, it must endure. +His own assurance is left on record: he held that knowledge and doing +are of value only so far as they ennoble humanity, and lead to that +which is eternal. He believed in the dependence of art on personal +character, on elevation of mind and purity of motive. The noblest +destiny of the race was ceaselessly before him, and he looked to +Christian Art as the means of showing to the world the everlasting +truth, and of raising the reality of life to the ideal. In conclusion, I +think it not too much to claim Overbeck as the most perfect example, in +our time, of the Christian Artist. + +The pecuniary rewards of the painter were in no fair proportion to his +talents or his industry. His labour, as we have seen, was primarily for +the honour of art and religion, and his protracted modes of study, as +well as the esoteric character of his compositions, were little likely +to meet with adequate return. Overbeck never realised large sums; his +prices measured by present standards were ridiculously low, and even +when overcrowded with commissions, he is known to have fallen short of +ready cash. Happily, after early struggles, he became relieved from +pressing anxieties, yet he remained comparatively poor. + +Overbeck's influence, the example of his life, the principles of his +art, extended far and wide throughout Europe. In France, the German +master won the reverence of the Christian artist Flandrin. In England, +Pugin held him up to students as a bright example. In Vienna and Prague, +Joseph Fuhrich, as a disciple, worked diligently. In Munich, Heinrich +Hess, and in Spires, Johann Schraudolph, painted extended series of +frescoes allied to the same Christian school. In Dusseldorf like +traditions live:--Deger, Ittenbach, Carl and Andreas Muller studied in +Rome, and their frescoes in the Rhine chapel at Remagen were inspired by +Overbeck. And specially does the mantle of the revered painter rest on +his friend Eduard Steinle; important works at Strasbourg, Cologne, +Frankfort, Munster, Klein-Heubach, and Reineck, respond to the spirit of +the great artist who, dead, yet speaks. + +Brief is the narrative of the approaching end. The infirmities of age +scarcely abated the ardent pursuit of an art dear as life itself. +Overbeck had suffered from an affection of the eyes, and his later +drawings, notwithstanding partial panegyrists, betray a faltering hand, +together with some incoherence in thought, or, at least, in the relation +of the parts to the whole. For some time, in fact, vitality had been +ebbing from his work. The summer of 1869 found him in his favourite +retreat of Rocca di Papa, and we are told he was "still busily +creating." His country dwelling stood among beauties which, in illness +as in health, came with healing power. From this sylvan quietude the +aged painter, in June, wrote to his dear friend, Director Steinle, a +letter abounding in love and aspiration; he dwells on the serenity of +the Italian sky, on the splendour of the landscape stretching before his +eye into the far distance; with characteristic modesty he laments that +even in old age he is not sufficiently advanced for the great task set +before him, and desires without intermission to turn to good account the +time still left; and then he counsels his "Brother in Christ" to direct +the mind steadfastly towards the glorious olden days which point to the +blessed goal. + +Overbeck, on his return to Rome in the autumn of 1869, resumed his +accustomed order of life. One who knew him well in later years relates +that he was to be found in his studio in the early morning, that, after +a short interval at noon, he resumed work till stopped by the darkness +of evening, and that, such was the wealth of material stored in the +mind, that he went on inventing without aid from usual outward +appliances. He still sought utmost tranquillity, and any intrusion on +the hours of study became extremely painful to him. Latterly he had been +engaged on a small composition of _The Last Judgment_; also he was +occupied on designs illustrative of human life--a series which had +advanced as far as the _Return from Church of the Wedding Party_. Such +were the congenial avocations when, on the fourteenth day after the +return home, he was seized with a severe cold on the chest. Yet the +symptoms so far yielded to medical treatment that in eight days the +danger had passed. Suddenly, however, ensued a total failure of power, +yet for the most part the mind remained unclouded. A day or two before +death he asked for a piece of charcoal, and added a few touches to a +design on which lately he had been working; and at times, when +apparently unconscious, he would look upwards, raise and move his hand +as if in the act of drawing. He prayed almost without ceasing, was +grateful for each kindness, and with dying lips had a loving and +comforting word for everyone. The last sinking came in quietness; +sustained by the consolations of religion he fell asleep towards six +o'clock in the evening of Friday, the 12th of November, in the eightieth +year of his age. He lay as he had lived--in peace; and near his bed was +placed the drawing on which he had lately worked, also the small cartoon +of _The Last Judgment_. + +The next day, according to the painter's wish, the body was taken by the +hands of his brother artists to San Bernardo, the little parish church +near his house, where he worshipped, and where he is still remembered. +An eye-witness writes from Rome to Lubeck, on the 18th of November: "I +have just come from the burial of our great fellow-countryman. Amid +universal grief the funeral mass took place this morning. The mournful +ceremony was performed by a German bishop assisted by Cistercian monks; +many artists and German students were present, and joined in psalms +composed by the Abbe Liszt. The whole function was most solemn, as if +the pious spirit of the departed had entered the whole assembly. Around +the bier were gathered Protestants as well as Roman Catholics; the +coffin bore the many orders which the artist had received, but was never +seen to wear; and at the feet lay the crown of laurels which his Roman +brethren reverently offered to their acknowledged chief." The body lies +in the chapel of St. Francis of Assisi, within the church of San +Bernardo. The resting-place is marked by a white marble cross, let into +the wall, bearing the inscription "Joannes Fridericus Overbeck--In +Pace." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[Footnote 1: See 'Lubeckische Blatter,' from 1839 to 1869, for sundry +notices concerning this picture and other works. The _Pieta_ is in oil +on canvas, 10 feet wide and nearly as high; the top is arched; it is +photographed. The pigments are in usual sound condition. A small picture +accompanied this _Pieta_. It had been intended as a present to the +brother, Judge Christian Gerhard Overbeck, but his death, in 1846, +preventing the fulfilment of the purpose, it was sent to Lubeck as a +gift to his son, the artist's nephew, Doctor and Senator Christian +Theodore Overbeck, who died 1880. The representatives in Lubeck of this +nephew are said to be in possession of sundry memorials of the +illustrious uncle. Here in Lubeck I may mention a _Madonna and Child_, a +circular composition 3 feet 2 inches in diameter, with the painter's +monogram and the date 1853. The picture is a gem, exquisite for purity, +tenderness, and beauty. Another _Madonna and Child_ is in the +Thorwaldsen Museum, Copenhagen.] + +[Footnote 2: _The Incredulity of St. Thomas_ is 10 feet high by 5 feet +wide. It bears the painter's monogram and the date 1851. The figures are +life-size. The picture is in perfect preservation. The pigments, as +usual, lie thin, showing through the rough tissues of the Roman canvas.] + +[Footnote 3: See 'Geschichte der neuen Deutschen Kunst, von Ernst +Forster.' Leipzig, Weigel, 1863.] + +[Footnote 4: _The Assumption of the Virgin_ is in oil on canvas; height +about 18 feet, width 9 feet. Figures nearly life-size. The scale is +rather small for the magnitude of the architectural surroundings. The +tone is that of an old picture, low and solemn. No positive colours are +admitted. The pigments remain intact, without crack, blister, or change +of colour. The picture was the joint gift of the Dusseldorf Kunst-Verein +and the Cologne Cathedral Chapter. The price paid was equal to about +L1000 sterling. The cartoon was exhibited in 1876 in the National +Gallery, Berlin.] + +[Footnote 5: The cartoons of the _Via Crucis_ were, in September 1880, +in the Villa Germania, near Biebrich. They are in chalk or charcoal in +outline on grey ground, tinted with sepia. Height, 1 foot 9 inches; +breadth, 1 foot 5 inches. The water-colour drawings of the same series +were, in January, 1878, in the Camera di Udienza of the Vatican. Height, +2 feet 6 inches; width, 1 foot 8 inches; mounted on white, and massively +framed. The walls and accessories of the Pope's apartment are of a crude +colour and in bad taste. The feeble execution of these cartoons and +water-colour drawings betrays advancing age and declining power.] + +[Footnote 6: The cartoons of _The Seven Sacraments_, after a labour of +some eight years, were finished in 1861, and received high encomiums +when exhibited in Brussels. They remained with Overbeck at the time of +his death, together with many other artistic properties, the +accumulation of a life. Some of these treasures have been sold by the +family who entered into possession. The cartoons were offered for sale, +but are still without a purchaser. Small tempera drawings of _The Seven +Sacraments_ were bought for the National Gallery, Berlin, in 1878. They +are on canvas: measurement, 1 foot 8 inches by 1 foot 3 inches. These +reductions were entrusted to scholars; the execution is poor; the master +is responsible chiefly for revision. The pigments used vary; some are in +warm sepia, others in cooler tones, and one, _Penance_, is fully +coloured. The results technically are far from satisfactory. These +_Sacraments_, including the predellas, friezes, and side borders, have +been photographed in large and smaller sizes by Albert, Munich, and from +the photographs August Gaber executed woodcuts, published with +explanatory text penned by Overbeck. This text was also published as a +separate pamphlet: Dresden, August Gaber; London, Dulau and Co. The hope +above expressed that the cartoons might be further carried out was never +realised.] + +[Footnote 7: I was informed, in October, 1881, by August Gaber, that the +wood engravings made by him of _The Seven Sacraments_ had proved a +financial failure, and that he had in the undertaking lost his all. The +Bible of Schnorr, also rendered on wood by him, had, on the contrary +succeeded. The reason assigned why the public did not care for _The +Seven Sacraments_ was, that the treatment is too strongly Catholic; and +this can hardly be a prejudiced judgment, because it was pronounced by +Herr Gaber, himself a Catholic.] + +[Footnote 8: The picture is in tempera on canvas, and was put up on the +ceiling of Pio Nono's sitting room in the Quirinal Palace. But when the +King of Italy took possession, a new canvas with cupids and putti was +stretched over it, and the Pope's sitting room is now turned into Prince +Humbert's bedroom. This brutality might almost justify the good painter +in his belief that Satan is now let loose upon earth. Yet the plea has +not without reason been urged that the picture is a deliberate attack on +the King's temporal power. The original cartoon was, in 1876, exhibited +in the National Gallery, Berlin, and the same subject the artist +repeated in an oil picture (10 feet by 8 feet), now in the Antwerp +Museum. Overbeck had been made a "Membre effectif" of the Antwerp +Academy in 1863, and the commission for this _replica_ followed thereon. +I am told on authority that in Antwerp "the work is considered very +mediocre."] + + + + +[Illustration: JOANNES FRIDERICUS OVERBECK IN PACE + +THE RESTING-PLACE OF OVERBECK IN THE CHURCH OF SAN BERNARDO, +ROME, IS MARKED BY A CROSS OF WHITE MARBLE BORDERED WITH +BLACK, AND BEARING AN INSCRIPTION AS ABOVE.] + + + + + CHRONOLOGY OF THE LIFE OF OVERBECK. + + +A.D. PAGE + + 1789. Overbeck born at Lubeck, 4th July 1 + His Ancestors for three generations Protestant Pastors 3 + His father Burgomaster, Doctor of Laws, and Poet 5 + + 1800. His Home Education 7 + + 1805. His First Drawing 9 + + 1806. Leaves Lubeck for Vienna 9 + Student in Viennese Academy 10 + + 1809. Begins painting _Christ's Entry into Jerusalem_ 11 + + 1810. Rebels against the Viennese Academy, and is expelled 15 + Leaves Vienna and reaches Rome 18 + + 1811. German Brotherhood of pre-Raphaelites 20 + Monastery of Sant' Isidoro, the Dwelling of the Fraternity 24 + First Commission 28 + + 1813. Overbeck joins the Roman Catholic Church 33 + + 1817. Niebuhr, Bunsen, and Schlegel, literary friends 34-40 + + 1818. Frescoes, _The History of Joseph,_ in the Casa Bartholdi 40 + Frescoes, _Jerusalem Delivered,_ in the Villa Massimo; + commission for 44-47 + + 1819. Exhibition in Palazzo Caffarelli 31 + Overbeck marries 49 + + 1831. Fresco, _The Vision of St. Francis,_ finished 50 + Overbeck visits Germany; returns to Rome 52-61 + + 1833. Present at the opening of Raphael's Tomb 61 + + 1835. _Christ's Agony in the Garden_; oil picture 63 + + 1836. _Lo Sposalizio_, oil picture, finished 64 + + 1840. _The Triumph of Religion in the Arts_, oil picture, 65-69 + finished + Death of son 76 + + 1846. _Pieta_, oil picture, finished 77 + + 1851. _The Incredulity of St. Thomas_, oil picture 79 + + 1852. _The Gospels_, forty cartoons, finished 69-72 + + 1853. Death of wife 80 + + 1855. _Assumption of the Madonna_, oil picture, finished 83 + Overbeck revisits Germany; returns to Rome 84 + + 1857. _Via Crucis_, fourteen water-colour drawings, finished 87 + Pope Pius IX. visits the Artist's studio 7th February 93 + + 1858. _Christ delivered from the Jews:_ Quirinal: Tempera Picture 92 + + 1861. _The Seven Sacraments_, cartoons 89-92 + + 1869. Overbeck died the 12th November, aged eighty 106 + + + + + INDEX. + + +(_The titles of Paintings and Drawings are printed in Italics._) + + +_Adoration of the Kings_, 28. + +_Annunciation_, 70. + +_Ascension_, 70. + +Assisi, 9, 46, 50, 82, 87. + +_Assumption of the Virgin_, 60, 83, 99, 101. + + +_Barabbas released_, 70. + +Bartholdi Casa, 40, 43, 44, 60. + +_Bearing to the Sepulchre_, 28. + +Beauty in the mind and art of Overbeck, 14, 17, 18, 29, 40, 43, 99. + +Berlin, National Gallery, 30, 46, 84, 90, 93. + +Bible Society, 36. + +_Blessed art thou among Women_, 28. + +Bond between Art and the Church, 39. + +_Book of Hours_, 94. + +Bunsen, Baron, 31, 34, 36, 37, 38, 72. + + +Caffarelli Palazzo, 31, 37. + +Canova, 27. + +Carstens, 12, 13. + +Cartoons by Overbeck, 9, 42, 45, 46, 50, 58, 70, 77, 82, 83, 87, 88, 93, +98. + +Catholicism, 27, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 38, 52, 53, 58, 62, 69, 79, 81, 92, +102, 106. + +Chart of Overbeck Family, 3, 4. + +_Christ's Agony in the Garden_, 63. + +_Christ bearing the Lamb_, 60. + +_Christ blessing Little Children_, 28. + +_Christ's Entry into Jerusalem_, 11, 16, 18, 71, 96. + +_Christ escaping from the Jews_, 92. + +_Christ falling under the Cross_, 71. + +_Christ healing the Sick_, 71. + +_Christ in the Temple_, 59, 71. + +_Christ teaching the Lord's Prayer_, 94. + +Christian Art, 12, 18, 27, 33, 39, 53, 66, 71, 96, 101, 103. + +_Christian Parnassus_, 65. + +Classic Movement, 3, 7, 8, 9, 12, 14, 27, 40. + +Coleridge, 36, 91. + +Cologne, 60, 63, 83, 84, 104. + +Colour, System of, 16, 29, 63, 64, 67, 98. + +Cornelius, Peter, 12, 18, 19, 21, 23, 31, 35, 36, 40, 43, 44, 48, 52, +54, 59, 61, 74, 83, 87, 95, 97. + +_Cornelius, Portrait of_, 59. + +_Coronation of the Virgin_, 94. + +_Creation of Adam and Eve_, 30. + +Crown Prince of Bavaria, 48. + + +David, French School of, 9, 12, 16, 26. + +_Death of St. Joseph_, 58, 62, 94. + +Deger, Ernst, 21, 104. + +Drawings by Overbeck, 9, 13, 28, 29, 30, 49, 55, 58, 59, 64, 87, 90. + +Dusseldorf, 12, 20, 21, 28, 52, 60, 84, 104. + + +_Elias in the Chariot of Fire_, 55. + +_Entombment_, 28, 71, 77, 87. + +European Art, influence of Overbeck over, 103. + +_Expulsion from Paradise_, 13, 30. + + +Father of the Painter, 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 10, 17, 36. + +Father's Creed for a Purist Painter, 8. + +Father's Monition to study the Classics, 8. + +_Feeding the Hungry_, 30. + +_Feed My Sheep_, 80. + +Fetes in honour of Overbeck, 53, 84. + +_Finding of Moses_, 59. + +_Flight into Egypt_, 31. + +_Four Evangelists_, 94. + +Frankfort Stadel Institute, 29, 60, 68, 85, 104. + +Fresco Paintings by Overbeck, 11, 12, 21, 31, 40, 43, 44, 49, 100, 104. + +Fuger, Friedrich, 10. + +Fuhrich, Joseph, 21, 32, 46, 51, 74, 104. + + +Gibson, John, 27, 100, 102. + +_God appearing to Elias_, 58. + +_Godfrey de Bouillon and Peter the Hermit_, 45. + +Goethe, 6, 12, 37. + +_Gospels_ or _Evangelists_, 70, 97. + + +Hamburg, 28, 63. + +_Head of Old Monk_, 30. + +Hess, Heinrich, 55, 104. + +_History of Joseph_, 41. + +Hoffmann, Madame, 81. + +_Holy Communion_, 91. + +_Holy Family_, 28, 56. + +Home Life of the Painter, 6, 72. + +_Human Life_, 105. + + +_Imitation of Christ_, 94. + +_Incredulity of St. Thomas_, 79. + +_Infant Jesus_, 59. + +Isidoro, Sant', Convent of, 21, 23, 24. + +_Israelites gathering Manna_, 59. + +_Italy and Germany_, 56. + +Ittenbach, Franz, 21, 104. + + +_Jairus's Daughter, raising of_, 29, 59. + +Jameson, Mrs., 50. + +_Jerusalem Delivered_, 12, 31, 45. + +_Jesus as a Child at Nazareth_, 6. + +_Jesus Condemned_, 87. + +_Jesus in the House of Martha and Mary_, 28. + +_Joseph sold by his Brethren_, 42. + + +_Last Judgment_, 105, 106. + +Leipzig Museum, 45, 50. + +Lessing, 27, 37. + +Letters and Correspondence of Overbeck, 9, 18, 25, 29, 33, 52, 57, 61, +62, 64, 98, 104. + +Linder, Emilie, 52, 57, 58, 62, 76, 85. + +Literature and Art, state of, 11, 37. + +Lubeck, 1-9. + +Ludwig, King, 54, 55. + +Luther, 2, 34, 36, 64. + + +_Madonna_, 31, 35. + +_Madonna and Child_, 31, 77. + +_Magnificat of Art_, 65. + +Maria Alfons, son of Overbeck, 17, 69, 76, 82. + +_Marriage of the Virgin_, 64. + +_Marriage, Sacrament of_, 80, 90. + +_Massacre of the Innocents_, 70. + +Massimo Villa, 9, 31, 44, 46, 60, 100. + +_Meeting of Ulysses and Telemachus_, 9. + +Memling's double Triptych, 2, 78. + +Mengs, Raphael, 12, 27. + +Mental Aspects of Overbeck, 5, 12, 15, 17, 18, 20, 24, 32, 34, 43, 51, +55, 61, 71, 73, 74, 77, 85, 86, 95, 101. + +Monumental Painting, 49. + +_Moses and the Daughters of Jethro_, 94. + +Muller, Andreas, 21, 104. + +Muller, Carl, 21, 104. + +Munich, 50, 53, 54, 55, 56, 59, 85, 104. + + +_Naming of St. John_, 71. + +Nature, study of, 15, 17, 23, 30, 43, 47, 54, 62, 63, 64, 66, 88, 100. + +Nazarites, 25, 74. + +Niebuhr, 25, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 44, 72. + +Nina, wife of Overbeck, 17, 49, 76, 80, 85. + + +Oil Paintings by Overbeck, 11, 16, 28, 50, 56, 58, 60, 62, 63, 64, 65, +77, 79, 83, 92, 93, 94. + + +_Passion, the_, 87. + +_Penance, Sacrament of_, 90. + +Personal Aspect of Overbeck, 34, 73, 74, 86, 94. + +Perugia, 87. + +_Pieta_, 77. + +_Pilgrim_, 94. + +Pius IX., 73, 92. + +_Pius IX., his Portrait_, 92. + +Portraits of Overbeck, 17, 59, 69, 94, 96. + +_Preaching of St. John_, 28. + +Pre-Raphaelites, English, 14, 62. + +Pre-Raphaelites, German, 15, 19, 20, 21, 23, 25, 31, 34, 36, 40, 61, 74. + +Pre-Raphaelites, Italian, 12, 16, 43, 64, 102. + +Prices of Pictures, 46, 58, 65, 67, 79. + +Protestantism, 1, 3, 31, 32, 33, 35, 53, 69, 79, 81, 83, 106. + +Pugin, 33, 67, 104. + + +Raczynski, Count, 50, 64. + +_Raising of Lazarus_, 28, 93. + +Raphael, opening of his Tomb, 61. + +Reformation, 3, 36. + +_Religion glorified by the Arts_: Overbeck's dissertation thereon, 65. + +_Resurrection, the_, 71. + +_Return from Church of the Wedding Party_, 105. + +Romantic Movement, 7, 12, 37, 47. + + +Schadow, Wilhelm, 21, 24, 31, 34, 35, 37, 40, 43, 60. + +Schlegel, Friedrich, 12, 31, 33, 35, 38, 39, 41. + +Schnorr, Julius, 21, 44, 45, 71, 92. + +Schraudolph, Johann, 55, 85, 104. + +_Seven Sacraments_, 70, 88, 91, 92. + +_Seven Sacraments_: Overbeck's exposition of, 89, 91. + +_Seven Years of Famine_, 42, 51, 98. + +_Sibyl_, 64. + +_Sophronio and Olindo_, 45. + +Spiritual Art, "Soul Pictures,", 15, 33, 40, 65, 66, 100. + +_Sposalizio, Lo_, 64. + +_Stations, the_, 70, 86, 87, 92. + +Steinle, Eduard, 21, 51, 85, 86, 104. + +Stift Neuburg, 28, 29, 30, 59, 85. + +_St. Philip Neri_, 94. + +Studio of Overbeck, 70, 73, 82, 86, 101. + +Study, Overbeck's modes of, 72, 97, 100, 101. + + +Thorwaldsen, 27, 77. + +_Triumph of Religion in the Arts_, 14, 60, 65, 97. + +_Triumph of Religion in the Arts_: Overbeck's exposition of, 65. + +_Twelve Apostles_, 94. + + +Veit, Philip, 21, 31, 35, 38, 40, 41, 43, 44, 45, 60, 61, 97. + +_Via Crucis_, 86, 87. + +Vienna, 9-18. + +_Virtues_, 94. + +_Vision of St. Francis_, 9, 49, 50. + +_Vittoria Caldoni, Portrait of_, 28, 56. + +_Vocation of the Apostles James and John_, 80, 94. + + +Winckelmann, 12, 27. + + + + +LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, STAMFORD STREET AND + CHARING CROSS. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Overbeck, by J. 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