Nazarener

Nazarenes, art movement at the beginning of the 19th century which tried to renew art on the basis of religion as a reaction to increasingly rigid academic classicism; at first the name was mockingly applied to the founders and members of the "Lukasbund" or "Lukasbrüderschaft", a small fraternity of painters and students of the Vienna Academy (F. Overbeck, F. Pforr, J. K. Hottinger, J. Wintergerst, L. Vogel and J. Sutter) because of their long, flowing hair. Since they were not accepted by the Academy, Overbeck, Pforr, Vogel and Hottinger moved to Rome in 1810, where they lived at the monastery St. Isidoro on Monte Pincio. Following Overbeck, the members of the group converted to Catholicism and finally adopted the derisive nickname "Nazarenes" as their chosen name. The Nazarenes were the last to try to form a collectivistic group of artists according to the mediaeval system of guilds; they exerted strong influence upon religious painting until the beginning of Expressionism. They drew inspiration from 16^th -century German painting and early Italian High Renaissance art. The frescoes in the Casa Bartholdy (1816/17) and the frescoes in the Casino Massimo (1819-1830) in Rome are among their most important works. In Vienna the Nazarenes were represented especially by J. v. Führich, E. J. v. Steinle, Ferdinand v. Olivier and Friedrich v. Olivier and L. Kupelwieser, in Graz by J. E. Tunner, in Vorarlberg by G. Flatz. The most important Nazarene work in Austria is the series of frescoes painted after the sketches of J. v. Führich in the Vienna Altlerchenfeld Church (1854-1861). The name "Nazarenes" has become a fixed phrase in art since the late 19th century.

Literature: R. Bachleitner, Die Nazarener, 1976; Die N.azarener, exhibition catalogue, Frankfurt am Main 1977.