that
on the return to Rome he will find his studio crowded with works begun,
but still unfinished, besides sketches of all sorts and sizes for
pictures not even commenced. He therefore asks for delay, and ends with
apologies for not writing more on the parental plea that "though it is
Sunday, I have long given my promise to my boy Alfons, whose tenth
birthday is to-day, that he shall have a ride on a donkey, and I am all
the more obliged to keep my word because my fresco work here compels me
for the moment to neglect him. We are all, thank God, very well, and
enjoy a thousand blessings in this abode of Paradise." Three months
later he writes under mistaken impressions as to the character of the
commission; he wishes to know the architectural style of the church, and
hopes it may be Gothic; he desires accurate measurements, because the
picture must appear to belong to its destined place, and then ends in
the following characteristic terms: "I repeat once more that the
commission fills me with utmost pleasure, but to you I must confide my
great anxiety, that I fear this picture is destined for a Protestant
church, as I hear it is to be for some newly-built church. Should this,
indeed, be the case, then pray try to give the whole thing another
direction, as such a commission would not suit me at all, and to refuse
it would be very disagreeable to me."

Overbeck's visit to Cologne, in 1831, naturally led to further
conferences concerning the picture for the Cathedral. The proposal, at
first, was that a triptych on a gold ground, in a Gothic frame, should
be painted for the high altar. Drawings were prepared, the general
scheme was approved by Cornelius, and the Archbishop gave his assent.
But objections having been raised on historic or archaeologic grounds,
the pictorial reredos was abandoned in favour of the present stone altar
table. The artist felt deeply disappointed, and craved the prayers of
his friend Steinle, who was engaged on the decoration of the choir.
Fortunately, the services of Overbeck were only transferred from the
high altar to the Madonna chapel, renovated to receive _The Assumption_
commissioned to be painted. The cartoon was prepared and approved, and
while engaged on the work the artist expressed himself supremely happy;
he had no higher ambition than to be found worthy of a place in the
great Cathedral.

_The Assumption of the Madonna_[4] is suited to its surroundings; it is
in keeping with the Go