Medievalism & Romanticism in Germany (2): The Nazarenes
Finally, a word should be said about the band of painters united under the banner of St Luke- the Nazarenes. Unlike Schinkel, they had no interest in following the soaring lines of Gothic cathedrals skywards, but instead limited their horizons to the intimacy of the hearth and workshop. The Nazarene movement was born in 1809 when six students at the Vienna Academy formed an association called the Brotherhood of St Luke (Lukasbrüder), named after the patron saint of painting. They actually didn’t use the label “Nazarenes” but acquired it from their detractors who observed that they affected biblical dress and hairstyles. Their aim was to communicate a Spartan simplicity in painting whose corollary was the spiritual ethos of the Middle Ages. Again, we are not far away from the monkish life because these painters lived and worked together in a quasi-monastic fashion. In contrast to the Nazarenes one might compare Friedrich’s Monk by the Sea (above) which is an essay in romantic pessimism.
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