Friedrich Overbeck. Johann Friedrich Overbeck was a German painter and member of the Nazarene movement.
He also made four etchings. Born in Lübeck, his ancestors for three generations had been Protestant pastors; his father Christian Adolph Overbeck was doctor of law, poet, mystic pietist and burgomaster of Lübeck.
Within a stone's throw of the family mansion in the Konigstrasse stood the Gymnasium, where the uncle, doctor of theology and a voluminous writer, was the master; there the nephew became a classic scholar and received instruction in art. The young artist left Lübeck in March 1806, and entered as student the academy of Vienna, then under the direction of Heinrich Füger.
While Overbeck clearly accrued some of the polished technical aspects of the neoclassic painters, he was alienated by lack of religious spirituality in the themes chosen by his masters. Overbeck wrote to a friend that he had fallen among a vulgar set, that every noble thought was suppressed within the academy and that losing all faith in humanity, he had turned inward to his faith for inspiration.
In Overbeck's view, the nature of earlier European art had been corrupted throughout contemporary Europe, starting centuries before the French Revolution, and the process of discarding its Christian orientation was proceeding further now. He sought to express Christian art before the corrupting influence of the late Renaissance,
He also made four etchings. Born in Lübeck, his ancestors for three generations had been Protestant pastors; his father Christian Adolph Overbeck was doctor of law, poet, mystic pietist and burgomaster of Lübeck.
Within a stone's throw of the family mansion in the Konigstrasse stood the Gymnasium, where the uncle, doctor of theology and a voluminous writer, was the master; there the nephew became a classic scholar and received instruction in art. The young artist left Lübeck in March 1806, and entered as student the academy of Vienna, then under the direction of Heinrich Füger.
While Overbeck clearly accrued some of the polished technical aspects of the neoclassic painters, he was alienated by lack of religious spirituality in the themes chosen by his masters. Overbeck wrote to a friend that he had fallen among a vulgar set, that every noble thought was suppressed within the academy and that losing all faith in humanity, he had turned inward to his faith for inspiration.
In Overbeck's view, the nature of earlier European art had been corrupted throughout contemporary Europe, starting centuries before the French Revolution, and the process of discarding its Christian orientation was proceeding further now. He sought to express Christian art before the corrupting influence of the late Renaissance,
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