Cathedral has justly
been designated "one of the finest productions of modern art." These
were not men to be wholly despised. Furthermore it is to be remembered,
as before indicated, that the Germans, in a generation only just passed
away, had here in Rome formed a learned school based on the antique;
Lessing, in his treatise, the 'Laocoon,' and Winckelmann, by his
criticisms on the marbles of the Vatican, had induced a new Classic
Renaissance. The painter Raphael Mengs, thus guided, appropriately
executed in the Villa Albani the famous fresco of _Apollo and the Nine
Muses on Mount Parnassus_. Again, here are men and manifestations not to
be disdained. But for such art Overbeck, as we have seen, cherished
inveterate antipathy: whether he was absolutely right, impartial
critics, founding a judgment on a wide historic basis, will hesitate to
determine. The correct verdict probably is that each school is good of
its kind, that the one possesses merits distinctive of the other, and
that it is well for the world that every mode of thought should in turn
obtain the fullest and highest manifestation. But Overbeck's vision was
too intently focussed on one point to perceive that his sphere was but a
segment, a part, though by no means an unimportant part, of the greater
whole. The classic movement, against which he set his face steadily, was
not to be easily annihilated; it survived in Rome in such illustrious
representatives as Canova, Thorwaldsen and Gibson. But Overbeck grew
more and more the recluse; he shortly became a proselyte to the Romish
Church, shut himself out from other associations, and thus after a time
devoted his pencil exclusively to Christian Art.

The early pictures and drawings executed in Rome carry out the painter's
resolve. To this first period belong: _The Adoration of the Kings_
(1811), _Jesus in the House of Martha and Mary_ (1812), _The Preaching
of St. John_, _The Raising of Lazarus_, _The Entombment_, _Christ
Blessing Little Children_, _The Holy Family_, _Ave Maria, Blessed art
thou among Women_, also a portrait of Vittoria Caldoni.[2] The first
commission received by the struggling painter came from Queen Caroline
of Bavaria for _The Adoration of the Kings_, in oils. The Queen had
written to Rome saying that she wished for a picture by the young
artist; that as to the price, a hard bargain need not be driven, for
when one gains a beautiful work, the cost cannot be regretted. Overbeck,
on receiving