OVERBECK, FRIEDRICH. - Painter, b. at Lübeck on 3 July 1789, d. at Rome on 12 Nov. 1869 (buried in S. Bernardo alle Terme). First a pupil of Peroux, Runge, and Tischbein, he was in Vienna in 1806, 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 foremost representative of this group or brotherhood.
With his companions he painted in Rome the frescoes in the Bartholdy house (1816–17), later detached and transferred to Berlin, and those of Villa Massimi (1817–27), with scenes inspired by the Gerusalemme liberata. In 1829 he painted frescoes on the façade of the Porziuncola in S. Maria degli Angeli at Assisi. Animated by a great faith, he hoped, in opposition to Neoclassical theories, to restore Christian art to its former splendor through the study of the masters of the Quattrocento, whose forms he adopted in many respects. In this he agreed with the Italian “Purists,” whose Manifesto he signed in 1843. His works are in
