eck mostly shunned
action and dramatic intensity, and here the figures in their movements
depart but slightly from the equilibrium of repose. As a religious
artist, the New Testament was more within his sphere than the Old. Thus
the outrage committed against Joseph by his brethren is toned down into
a calm, orderly transaction; placidity reigns throughout; all is brought
into keeping with the painter's spirit of gentleness.

The Casa Bartholdi frescoes,[9] when finished, produced a most
favourable impression in Rome; the cause of the Germans was greatly
strengthened, and the opposite party felt the defeat. The Italians, too,
were taken by surprise to find themselves beaten by foreigners on their
own ground. A natural consequence of the success was further
commissions, and the fortune no less than the fame of the revivalists
was made. Singularly enough the modern Romans came forward as the next
patrons. Niebuhr, writing from Rome in 1817, says: "It is a significant
fact that some foreigners, even Italians, are beginning to pay attention
to the works of our friends." It is well known that the Romans had been
addicted for centuries to mural painting in palaces, villas and
garden-houses: Raphael was employed to decorate the Farnesina; Guido and
Annibale Carracci painted the ceilings of the Farnese and of the
Rospigliosi Palaces. Emulating these illustrious examples, Prince
Massimo commissioned Overbeck, Cornelius, Veit, and Schnorr to cover the
walls and ceilings of his Garden Pavilion near St. John Lateran with
frescoes illustrative of Tasso, Dante, and Ariosto. Not only the themes,
but the local surroundings were inspiring. The Villa Massimo is a site
only possible in Rome. When the artists in the morning came to work,
before their view opened a panorama embracing the Claudian Aqueduct, St.
John Lateran, the Church of Sta. Croce in Gerusalemme, the old Walls of
Rome, with cypresses and stone pines around, and the Alban Hills beyond.
The Pavilion assigned to the painters stands in the Villa garden, with
the accustomed growth and fragrance of orange-trees, magnolias, azaleas,
roses, and violets. Overbeck entered on the work with poetic ardour.

The Massimo Pavilion is little more than three rooms standing on the
ground; the first, indeed, is an Entrance Hall, and therein Schnorr
painted copiously from Ariosto. On the left a door leads to the room
assigned to Cornelius for the illustration of Dante: the ceiling fell to
the