VEIT, PHILIPP, a distinguished German painter, was born at Berlin, Feb. 13, 1793. His mother, a daughter of 3Ioses Mendelssohn, had for her second husband, Friedrich Schlegel, and Veit became devotedly attached to the religious and artistic ideas of his stepfather, whom he followed in his renunciation of Protestauism for Roman Catholi cism. After finishing his studies at Dresden, he proceeded to Rome in 1815, and became a very prominent member of that coterie of young German painters who sought to infuse into modern art the purity and earnestness of medimval times. Of all the asso ciates, Veit ventured furthest into the obscure realms of symbolism and allegory. His first famous work was the "Seven Years of Plenty," executed as a companion-piece to Overbeck's "Seven Years of Dearth," and forming part of a series of frescoes illustra tive of the history of Joseph, painted at the Villa Bartholdy in Rome. In richness and freshness of invention, it is reckoned one of the best works of the school to which it belongs. Other pictures of a high order of 'merit, done during his residence at Rome, are " The Triumph of Religion" (Vatican galley), " Scenes from Dante's Paradtso" (Massimi Villa), and an altar-piece, representing " Mary as Queen of Heaven" in the Trinitil. de' Monti. These procured him so great a reputation that he was called to the
directorship of the Stadelsche art institute, in Frankfurt-on-the-Maine, While holding this position, he produced many 5rand pictures, of which the most celebrated is the large fresco (at the institute), representing " Christianity bringing the Fine Arts to Germany, held by many to be the finest fresco by any modern artist. Others are, " The Two Diaries at the Sepulchre," and " St. George." In 1843 he resigned his post as director, and removed to Sachsenhausen, in Hesse-Cassel. Among his later works are, " The Ascension of the Virgin," "The Good Samaritan," "The Egyptian Darkness," and "Glorification of the Christian Faith in its Alliance with the Reigning House of Prussia," for the king of Prussia. In 1868 he painted several frescoes for the Mayence cathedral. He died, December, 1877.