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 Pietà_, in Lübeck, 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 Lübeck, 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 Pietà_[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 Lübeck, 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
_Pietà_ of Perugino in the Pitti Palace has been implicitly followed:
around are the holy women weeping, with disciples and Nicodemus and
Joseph of Arimathæa. 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 _Pietà_ still remains
Memling's masterpiece, which, as already related, had deeply impressed
the youthful painter while yet in the Lübeck 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 _Pietà_ 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 Förster, 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 Düsseldorf 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 archæologic 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 Düsseldorf. 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
Düsseldorf 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 Küchler, 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 mediæval 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 Düsseldorf, 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 Führich, 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 Düsseldorf like
traditions live:--Deger, Ittenbach, Carl and Andreas Müller 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, Münster, 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 Lübeck, 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 Abbé 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 'Lübeckische Blätter,' from 1839 to 1869, for sundry
notices concerning this picture and other works. The _Pietà_ 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 _Pietà_. 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 Lübeck as a
gift to his son, the artist's nephew, Doctor and Senator Christian
Theodore Overbeck, who died 1880. The representatives in Lübeck of this
nephew are said to be in possession of sundry memorials of the
illustrious uncle. Here in Lübeck 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
Förster.' 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 Düsseldorf Kunst-Verein
and the Cologne Cathedral Chapter. The price paid was equal to about
£1000 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 Lübeck, 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 Lübeck 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. _Pietà_, 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.
Düsseldorf, 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.
Fêtes in honour of Overbeck, 53, 84.
_Finding of Moses_, 59.
_Flight into Egypt_, 31.
_Four Evangelists_, 94.
Frankfort Städel Institute, 29, 60, 68, 85, 104.
Fresco Paintings by Overbeck, 11, 12, 21, 31, 40, 43, 44, 49, 100, 104.
Füger, Friedrich, 10.
Führich, 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.
Lübeck, 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.
Müller, Andreas, 21, 104.
Müller, 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.
_Pietà_, 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.