OVERBECK, JOHANN FRIEDRICH (1789-1869) , German the reviver of "Christian art" in the 19th cen tury, was born in Lubeck on the 4th of July 1789. His ancestors for three generations had been Protestant pastors; his father was doctor of laws, poet, mystic pietist and burgomaster of Lubeck. In 1806, after finishing his course at the gymnasium, Overbeck left Lubeck and entered the Academy of Vienna, then under the direction of Fuger, a painter of the pseudo-classic school of David. Not finding the help on which he had counted, Over beck turned to the early and pre-Raphaelite masters of Italy for inspiration. At the end of four years he was expelled. He there upon went to live in Rome, where he gathered about him a group of friends which included Cornelius, Veit and Wilhelm Schadow. The little group made their home in the old Franciscan monas tery of San Isidoro on the Pincian, and in 1813 Overbeck joined the Roman Catholic church. The group became known as the "Nazarites," "pre-Raphaelites," or "German-Roman artists." They believed in hard, honest work and holy living, eschewed the antique as pagan and the Renaissance as false, and aimed at bring ing about a revival on the basis of nature and the serious art of Perugino, Pinturicchio, Francia and the young Raphael. Their painting was characterized by nobility of conception, precision— not to say hardness—of outline, and scholarly composition. Light, shade and colour they admitted only in the interests of clearness and correctness, and not as softening elements. Overbeck, with his ,saintly character and lofty ideals, was the natural leader and mentor of the party. They would have fared badly however from a practical point of view but for the timely help of Niebuhr, Bun sen, Friedrich Schlegel, and the Prussian consul Bartholdi, who commissioned the four friends to decorate his villa with frescoes on the story of Joseph and his Brethren. This led to another com
mission from Prince Massimo to paint the ceilings and walls of his pavilion. Overbeck's failing health did not allow him to finish his share of this undertaking and he delegated it to Joseph Fiihrich. His last work was a "Vision of St. Francis" with life size figures for the walls of Sta. Maria degli Angeli near Assisi. All his paintings bear the mark of religious fervour and careful preparation and have an element of religious propaganda. The handling is dry and severe and the colour restrained. His faith found its clearest expression in his religious cartoons, the Gospels (1852), Via Crucis (1857) and the Seven Sacraments (1861). He died in Rome on Nov. 12, 1869, and was buried in San Bernardo. Overbeck's principal oil and easel paintings are: "Christ's Entry into Jerusalem" (1824), in the Marien Kirche, Lubeck ; "Christ's Agony in the Garden" (1835), in the great hospital, Hamburg; "Lo Sposalizio" (1836) , Raczynski gallery, Berlin ; the "Triumph of Re ligion in the Arts" (1840), in the Stadel Institut, Frankfort ; "Pieta" (1846), in the Marien Kirche, Lubeck; the "Incredulity of St. Thomas" (1851), in the possession of Mr. Beresford Hope, London; the "Assumption of the Madonna" (1855), in Cologne Cathedral; "Christ delivered from the Jews" (i858), tempera, on a ceiling in the Quirinal Palace—a commission from Pius IX., and a direct attack on the Italian temporal government, therefore later covered by a canvas. There are biographies by J. Beavington Atkinson (1882) and Howitt (1886).