OUBERECK, FRIEDRICH. - Painter, born in Lübeck on 3 July 1789, died in Rome on 12 Nov. 1869 (buried in S. Bernardo alle Terme). First a pupil of Peroux, Runge and Tischbein, in 1806 he was in Vienna, where in 1809 he founded the Lukasbund, and then left for Rome where, having converted to Catholicism, he formed with other German painters the group known as the “Nazarenes” (v.). He remained the leading exponent of this group or brotherhood.
With his companions he painted in Rome the frescoes of Casa Bartholdy (1816–17), later detached and transferred to Berlin, and those of Villa Massimi (1817–27) with scenes inspired by *Gerusalemme liberata*. In 1829 he painted frescoes on the façade of the Porziuncola in S. Maria degli Angeli in Assisi. Animated by a profound faith, he hoped, in opposition to neoclassical theories, to restore Christian art to its former glory through the study of 15th-century masters, whose forms he adopted in many respects. In this he agreed with the Italian “purists,” whose Manifesto he signed in 1843. His works are held in some of the major museums of Europe, including Basel, Berlin, Dublin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Cologne, Copenhagen, London, Lübeck, Prague, Vienna, Zurich, etc.