![JvFuhrichJosephRachel](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/JvFuhrichJosephRachel.jpg)
The epithet Nazarene was adopted by a group of early 19th-century
German Romantic painters who aimed to revive spirituality in art. The name Nazarene came from a term of derision used against them for their affectation of a biblical manner of clothing and hair style.
History
![Joseph Anton Koch 004](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/Joseph_Anton_Koch_004.jpg)
In 1809, six students at the
Vienna Academy
The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (german: link=no, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien) is a public art school in Vienna, Austria.
History
The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna was founded in 1692 as a private academy modelled on the Accademia di Sa ...
formed an artistic cooperative in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
called the Brotherhood of St. Luke or ''Lukasbund'', following a common name for medieval
guilds of painters. In 1810 four of them,
Johann Friedrich Overbeck
Johann Friedrich Overbeck (3 July 1789 – 12 November 1869) was a German painter. As a member of the Nazarene movement, he also made four etchings.
Early life and education
Born in Lübeck, his ancestors for three generations had been Protes ...
,
Franz Pforr
Franz Pforr (5 April 1788 – 16 June 1812) was a painter of the German Nazarene movement.
Biography
He was born in Frankfurt am Main. He received his earliest training from his father, the painter Johann Georg Pforr (1745–98), and his uncl ...
,
Ludwig Vogel
Georg Ludwig Vogel (10 July 1788, Zürich - 21 August 1879, Zürich) was a Swiss history painter, associated with the Nazarene movement.
Biography
He originally followed in his father's footsteps and became a confectioner. He had, however, shown ...
and Johann Konrad Hottinger (1788-1827) moved to
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
, where they occupied the abandoned monastery of
San Isidoro. They were joined by
Philipp Veit
Philipp Veit (13 February 179318 December 1877) was a German Romantic painter and one of the main exponents of the Nazarene movement. It is to Veit that the credit of having been the first to revive the nearly forgotten technique of fresco ...
,
Peter von Cornelius
Peter von Cornelius (23 September 1783, Düsseldorf – 6 March 1867, Berlin) was a German painter; one of the main representatives of the Nazarene movement.
Life
Early years
Cornelius was born in Düsseldorf. From the age of twelve he attend ...
,
Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld,
Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow
Friedrich Wilhelm von Schadow (7 September 1789 – 19 March 1862) was a German Romantic painter.
Biography
He was born in Berlin, the second son of the sculptor Johann Gottfried Schadow, who gave him his first lessons in drawing. He then turne ...
and a loose grouping of other German-speaking artists. They met up with Austrian romantic landscape artist
Joseph Anton Koch
Joseph Anton Koch (27 July 1768 – 12 January 1839) was an Austrian painter of Neoclassicism and later the German Romantic movement; he is perhaps the most significant neoclassical landscape painter.
Biography
The Tyrolese painter was born i ...
(1768–1839) who became an unofficial tutor to the group. In 1827 they were joined by
Joseph von Führich
Joseph von Führich (fully Josef Ritter von Führich) (9 February 1800 – 13 March 1876) was an Austrian painter, one of the Nazarene movement, Nazarenes.
Biography
He was born at Kratzau (today Chrastava) in Bohemia. Deeply impressed as a b ...
(1800–1876).
The principal motivation of the Nazarenes was a reaction against
Neoclassicism and the routine art education of the academy system. They hoped to return to art that embodied spiritual values, and sought inspiration in artists of the late
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
and early
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
, rejecting what they saw as the superficial virtuosity of later art.
In Rome the group lived a semi-monastic existence as a way of re-creating the nature of the medieval artist's workshop. Religious subjects dominated their output, and two major commissions allowed them to attempt a revival of the medieval art of
fresco painting. The first was a fresco series completed in Rome for the
Casa Bartholdy (1816–17; moved to the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin), a collaborative project by the Nazarenes that "marks the beginnng of the revival of fresco decoration for private and public buildings". This, and a second commission to decorate the Casino Massimo (1817–1829), gained international attention for the work of the "Nazarenes". However, by 1830 all except Overbeck had returned to Germany and the group had disbanded. Many Nazarenes became influential teachers in German art academies.
Legacy
The programme of the Nazarenes—the adoption of what they called honest expression in art and the inspiration of artists before Raphael—was to exert considerable influence in Germany, and in England upon the
Pre-Raphaelite
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...
movement. They were also direct influences on the British artists
William Dyce
William Dyce (; 19 September 1806 in Aberdeen14 February 1864) was a Scottish painter, who played a part in the formation of public art education in the United Kingdom, and the South Kensington Schools system. Dyce was associated with the Pre-R ...
and
Frederick Leighton
Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton, (3 December 1830 – 25 January 1896), known as Sir Frederic Leighton between 1878 and 1896, was a British painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. His works depicted historical, biblical, and classical subjec ...
and
Ford Madox Brown
Ford Madox Brown (16 April 1821 – 6 October 1893) was a British painter of moral and historical subjects, notable for his distinctively graphic and often Hogarthian version of the Pre-Raphaelite style. Arguably, his most notable painti ...
.
[Neil MacMillan, ''Victorian Romantics'' (Vancouver: MacMillan & Perrin, 1979) p.1]
Notable members
*
Peter von Cornelius
Peter von Cornelius (23 September 1783, Düsseldorf – 6 March 1867, Berlin) was a German painter; one of the main representatives of the Nazarene movement.
Life
Early years
Cornelius was born in Düsseldorf. From the age of twelve he attend ...
*
Josef Führich
*
Johann Friedrich Overbeck
Johann Friedrich Overbeck (3 July 1789 – 12 November 1869) was a German painter. As a member of the Nazarene movement, he also made four etchings.
Early life and education
Born in Lübeck, his ancestors for three generations had been Protes ...
*
Franz Pforr
Franz Pforr (5 April 1788 – 16 June 1812) was a painter of the German Nazarene movement.
Biography
He was born in Frankfurt am Main. He received his earliest training from his father, the painter Johann Georg Pforr (1745–98), and his uncl ...
*
Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow
Friedrich Wilhelm von Schadow (7 September 1789 – 19 March 1862) was a German Romantic painter.
Biography
He was born in Berlin, the second son of the sculptor Johann Gottfried Schadow, who gave him his first lessons in drawing. He then turne ...
*
Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld
*
Eduard Jakob von Steinle
Eduard von Steinle (2 July 1810 – 19 September 1886) was a historical painter and member of the Nazarene movement.
Life
He was born 2 July 1810 in Vienna.
Steinle came successively under the influence of the painters Leopold Kupelwieser ...
*
Philipp Veit
Philipp Veit (13 February 179318 December 1877) was a German Romantic painter and one of the main exponents of the Nazarene movement. It is to Veit that the credit of having been the first to revive the nearly forgotten technique of fresco ...
*
Johannes Veit
Johannes Veit, originally Jonas Veit (2 March 1790, Berlin - 18 January 1854, Rome) was a German history painter. After 1811, he lived and worked in Rome, where he was a member of the Nazarene movement.
*
Ludwig Vogel
Georg Ludwig Vogel (10 July 1788, Zürich - 21 August 1879, Zürich) was a Swiss history painter, associated with the Nazarene movement.
Biography
He originally followed in his father's footsteps and became a confectioner. He had, however, shown ...
*
Eugene von Guerard
Johann Joseph Eugene von GuérardHis first name is variously spelled "Eugen", "Eugene", "Eugène", one source mentions "Jean" (instead of "Johann"); his surname is spelled "Guerard" or "Guérard". The most frequent combination is that used by t ...
Other painters associated with the movement
*
Carl Joseph Begas
*
Karl von Blaas
Karl von Blaas (28 April 1815 – 19 March 1894) was an Austrian painter known for his portraits and religious compositions executed on canvas as well as in the form of frescoes.
Biography
Carl Von Blaas was born to a peasant family at Nauders i ...
*
Ernst Deger
*
Konrad Eberhard
*
Carl Eggers
*
Marie Ellenrieder
*
Gebhard Flatz
*
Matthias Goebbels
*
Josef von Hempel
*
Franz Theobald Horny
*
Franz Ittenbach
*
Gustav Jäger
*
Leopold Kupelwieser
Leopold Kupelwieser (17 October 1796, Markt Piesting – 17 November 1862, Vienna) was an Austrian painter, often associated with the Nazarene movement.
Life
He was the son of Johann Baptist Georg Kilian Kupelwieser (1760–1813), co-owner of ...
*
Friedrich Lange
*
Ferdinand Olivier
Johann Heinrich Ferdinand Olivier (1785–1841) was a German painter associated with the Nazarene movement.
Life
Olivier was born in Dessau on 1 April 1785, to a family of Swiss-French descent. He began his artistic education in 1801 by taking ...
*
Friedrich Olivier
*
Johann David Passavant
Johann David Passavant (18 September 1787 – 17 August 1861) was a German painter, curator and artist.
Biography
Passavant was born in 1787 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. His interest in the arts was evident by an early correspondence wi ...
*
Carl Gottlieb Peschel
*
Johann Anton Ramboux
*
Theodor Rehbenitz
*
Johann Scheffer von Leonhardshoff
*
Ludwig Schnorr von Carolsfeld
Ludwig Schnorr von Carolsfeld (2 July 183621 July 1865) was a German Heldentenor. He is best known creating the role of Tristan in Wagner's opera ''Tristan und Isolde'' at its 1865 premiere at the Bavarian court opera in Munich. His career was ...
*
Johann von Schraudolph
Johann von Schraudolph (b. Oberstdorf im Allgäu, 1808; died 31 May 1879) was a German historical painter. His brother Matthias and his son Claudius were both also painters.
As pupil and assistant of Heinrich Maria von Hess, he painted five sc ...
*
Joseph Anton Settegast
Joseph Anton Nikolaus Settegast (8 February 1813, Koblenz - 19 March 1890, Mainz) was a German church painter and one of the last representatives of the Nazarene movement.
Life
He received his first art instruction from 1829 to 1831 at the Kuns ...
*
Johann Michael Wittmer
*
Giuseppe Hyzler and his brother
Vincenzo Hyzler from Malta
See also
*
Gabriel Wüger
*
German Romanticism
*
Middle Ages in history
*
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
*
Purismo
''Purismo'' was an Italian cultural movement which began in the 1820s. The group intended to restore and preserve language through the study of medieval authors, and such study extended to the visual arts.
Inspired by the Nazarenes from Germany, ...
Further reading
* Mitchell Benjamin Frank. ''Romantic Painting Redefined: Nazarene Tradition and the Narratives of Romanticism''. Ashgate Publishing, 2001;
* Cordula Grewe. ''Painting the Sacred in the Age of German Romanticism''. Aldershot: Ashgate Books, 2009.
*
Lionel Gossman
Lionel Gossman (1929 – 11 January 2021) was a Scottish-American scholar of French literature. He taught Romance Languages at Johns Hopkins University and Princeton University, and wrote extensively on the history, theory and practice of histori ...
. ''Making of a Romantic Icon: The Religious Context of Friedrich Overbeck's 'Italia und Germania. American Philosophical Society, 2007.
*
Lionel Gossman
Lionel Gossman (1929 – 11 January 2021) was a Scottish-American scholar of French literature. He taught Romance Languages at Johns Hopkins University and Princeton University, and wrote extensively on the history, theory and practice of histori ...
"Unwilling Moderns: The Nazarene Painters of the Nineteenth Century"in ''Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide'' – Volume 2, Issue 3, Autumn 2003.
References
External links
{{Authority control
Nazarene movement,