German Romantic Painting Redefined : Nazarene Tradition and the Narratives of Romanticism

The modernist aesthetic and, later, Nazi ideology split German Romantic painting into two opposed phases, an early progressive movement, represented by Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) and Philipp Otto Runge (1777-1810), and a later reactionary one - epitomized by Friedrich Overbeck (1789-1869) and Peter von Cornelius (1783-1867). In this rich and engaging book, Mitchell Frank explores the continuities between these two phases to reconstruct the historical position that existed in the nineteenth century and to look once again at the Nazarenes - and Overbeck in particular - as a fully integrated part of the Romantic movement. His innovative book is crucial to an understanding of German Romanticism and the legacy of this period in European art.

''This is an interesting and thought provoking book which provides a valuable new perspective on the history of the reception and interpretation of German Romantic art, and in particular the problematic position of the Nazarenes within this narrative. ...there is an increasing understanding of how important this art is for gaining an understanding of the period in general. Frank''s book is genuinely innovative and will undoubtedly attract international attention.'' German Romantic Painting focuses on the view of Romanticism as a medieval-revivalist movement characterised by the work of the Nazarenes. In the nineteenth century, the Nazarenes were much more popular than either Caspar David Friedrich or P.O. Runge, and their art defined the Romantic movement for most of their contemporaries. The author then plots the nationalist and formalist arguments that were used to redefine the period in terms of landscape painting. German Romantic Painting revises our understanding of German Romanticism through an historical and historiographical reconsideration of the period.