OVERBECK, PRIEM:ICU, b. at Lubeck; July 3, 1789, it distinguished painter. to whom is justly awarded a large share of the merit of the movement in the early part of this c., from which arose the modem German school of art. Ile commenced his studies as an artist at Vienna in 1803; bitt having adopted, and continued to persist in carrying out certain notions on art, and the mode of studying it, essentially different from those incul cated in the academy, lie was expelled along with certain other students who entertained the same views, and in 1 09 set out for Rome. Here be was soon afterward joined by Cornelius and Schadow; and these three, animated with similar ideas, and mutually encouraging one another, laid the foundation of a school that now holds a high rank, and has in no small degree influenced the taste for art in Europe at the present time. A picture of the Madonna, which Overbook painted at Rome in 181l, brought Inns into marked notice, Ile was next employed along with Cornelius and others, by the Pra-slan consul, gen. Bartholdi, to execute certain frescoes illustrating the history of Joseph, the " Selling of :Joseph" and the " Seven Lean Years" being tae subjects assigned to him. After completing these, he painted in fresco, in the villa of the marchese Nassimi, live lora. compositions from Tasso's Jerwodem Delirered. In 1814. along with mane of his Sri tic brethren• lie abjured Lutheranism, and embraced the Roman Catholic religion.
Overbeek's chief work is a fresco at Assisi, " The Miracle of Hoses of St. Francis." His oil pictures are inferior to his frescoes, being dry and weak in color. Ills great picture. " influence of Religion on Art," preserved in the Stadel institute at Frankfurt, and well known from the engraving, is an admirable composition, and is indeed t he most favorable specimen of his powers as a painter in oil colors. Ile executed it great many drawing's remarkable for high feeling, most of which have Leen engraved. One of hi: last undertakings, a series of designs from the Evimg)lists, delicately engraved in the line manner, is a work of high excellence. Overbeck adhered closely to those ideas of art which he started with—namely, entire devotion to the style of the Italian artist:, prior to the period of the renaissance,Tarticularly Era Angelico (b. 1387—d. 1455), and a strong impression that form or drawing in the style of Greek or class=ic art is inadmis sible in works entbadylag religious subjects; although many of his compatriots—Corne lius, for instance—have modified, or perhaps enlarged these ideas, and study the works of Michael Angelo and those of Idaphael's later style executed under the inflii,nwe of classic art. Overbeck resided in Rome from the time he went- there us a student. Ile died November 18139.