ld remains divided. My care has been to give a
just estimate of these exceptional art manifestations.

Also enter into the art, through the life, conflicts of religious
creeds, strifes between Protestantism and Catholicism, between
Platonism, Mysticism, and Rationalism. In dealing with such delicate and
serious topics I have avoided all controversy, and have ventured only on
the simplest and briefest exposition. My effort has been to state the
case fairly all round, to maintain an even balance, and, above all, to
place the reader, whatever may chance to be his creed or art school, in
a position to form a true judgment.

Likewise fairly to appreciate the artist, it is needful rightly to
comprehend the man. And here, again, perplexities arise from unwonted
combinations. The character is one of the noblest and purest, and yet it
is beset with peculiar infirmities. The portrait offered in these pages
is, I trust, true and individual, toned down into unity, and yet not
left cold or colourless. Such negation would, indeed, do injustice to my
own feelings. For among the cherished recollections of past days are my
visits to Overbeck's studio, stretching over a period of twenty years: I
learned to revere the master and to love his works, and I trust no word
in this little volume may lessen the respect due to an honoured name.

J. B. A.

KENSINGTON,
_May, 1882._

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

LUBECK--VIENNA.

Birth and Parentage--Early Days in Lubeck--The Artist's learned and
religious Ancestry--His Father Doctor of Laws and Burgomaster--Chart of
the Family--Creed for a Purist Painter--Young Overbeck leaves Lubeck for
Vienna: his Studies in the Academy--Decadence of Art in the Austrian
Capital--Rise of the German Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood--Conflict between
the Old Party and the New--Overbeck and his Friends expelled from the
Academy--He resolves to make Christian Art the Vocation of his
Life--Leaves Vienna for Rome Page 1

CHAPTER II.

ROME--THE GERMAN BROTHERHOOD.

Overbeck and his brother Artists reach Rome--The German Colony settle in
the Convent of Sant' Isidore--Inspiring surroundings of Art and
Nature--Modes of Study and of Life--Overbeck "a Treasury of Art and
Poetry, a saintly Man"--"The Ne