Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Von Carolsfeld as a young man (1820), byFriedrich von Olivier,Albertinum | |
| Born | (1794-03-26)26 March 1794 |
| Died | 24 May 1872(1872-05-24) (aged 78) |
| Occupation | Painter |
Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld (26 March 1794 – 24 May 1872)[1] (German pronunciation:[ˈjuːli̯ʊsʃnɔʁfɔnˈkaːʁɔlsfɛlt]) was a Germanpainter, chiefly of Biblical subjects. As a young man he associated with the painters of theNazarene movement who revived the florid Renaissance style in religious art. He is remembered for his extensivePicture Bible, and his designs for stained glass windows in cathedrals.
Schnorr was born inLeipzig, the son ofVeit Hanns Schnorr von Carolsfeld[2] (1764–1841), a draughtsman, engraver, and painter, from whom he received his initial artistic education,[3] his earliest known works being copies of the Neoclassical drawings ofJohn Flaxman.[4] In 1811 he entered theVienna Academy, from whichJohann Friedrich Overbeck and others who rebelled against the old conventional style had been expelled about a year before.[3] There he studied underFriedrich Heinrich Füger, and became friends withJoseph Anton Koch andHeinrich Olivier, both of whom would have an important influence on his style.[2]Schnorr followed Overbeck and the other founders of the Nazarene movement toRome in 1815, where the colony of artists lived in the abandonedSan Isidoro monastery.. This school of religious and romantic art tended to reject modern styles, attempting to revert to and revive the principles and practice of earlier periods.[3]
At the beginning of his time in Rome, Schnorr was particularly influenced by his close study of fifteenth-century Italian painting, especially the works ofFra Angelico. Soon however, he abandoned this refined simplicity, and began to look towards more elaborateHigh Renaissance models.[5]
From its outset the Nazarene movement made an effort to recoverfresco painting and monumental art, and Schnorr had an opportunity to demonstrate his powers when commissioned to decorate the entrance hall of theVilla Massimo near theLateran with frescoes illustrating the works ofAriosto.[3] Other cycles in the house were begun byPeter von Cornelius andJohann Friedrich Overbeck.[5]
Schnorr married Maria Heller, the stepdaughter ofFerdinand Olivier, in 1827.[2]Their sonLudwig Schnorr von Carolsfeld was an operatic tenor who died at the age of 29. He had just begun to gain renown as the first to sing Wagner'sTristan. Schnorr's brother,Ludwig Ferdinand [de] (1788–1853) was also a painter. Schnorr died in Dresden in 1872.
The second period of Schnorr's artistic output began in 1825, when he left Rome, settled inMunich, entered the service ofLudwig I of Bavaria, and transplanted to Germany the art of wall-painting which he had learned in Italy. He showed himself qualified as a sort of poet-painter to the Bavarian court; he organized a staff of trained executants, and covered five halls in the new palace – the "Residenz" – with frescoes illustrating theNibelungenlied. He also painted a series of scenes from the lives ofCharlemagne,Frederick Barbarossa andRudolph of Habsburg.[3]
Schnorr had initially wanted to create a complex symbolic programme in which these German historical subjects were combined with scenes from the Old Testament. This however was rejected by Ludwig, leaving Schnorr to complain that he was left with the task of painting a mere "newspaper report of the Middle Ages" ("Zeitungsartikel des Mittelalters").[4] Critics considered these compositions to be creative, learned in composition, masterly in drawing, but also exaggerated in thought and extravagant in style.[3][6]
In 1846 Schnorr moved to Dresden to become a professor at the academy there. The next year he was appointed director of theGemäldegalerie.[7]
Schnorr's third period was marked by hisbiblical illustrations. He was aLutheran, and took a broad and unsectarian view.[3] HisPicture Bible was published in Leipzig in 30 parts in 1852–60, and an English edition followed in 1861.[8] ThePicture Bible illustrations were often complex and cluttered; some critics found them lacking in harmony of line and symmetry, judging them to be inferior to equivalent work produced byRaphael. His style differs from the simplicity and severity of earlier times, exhibiting instead the floridity of the laterRenaissance.[3]
Schnorr's biblical drawings and cartoons for frescoes formed a natural prelude to designs for church windows, and his renown in Germany secured commissions in Great Britain.[3] Schnorr was one of ten artists who provided designs for a scheme of stained-glass for Glasgow Cathedral, commissioned in 1856–7 and manufactured at the royal factory in Munich, and he later designed windows forSt Paul's Cathedral in London.[3][9] This Munich glass provoked controversy: medievalists objected to its lack of lustre, and stigmatized the windows as mere coloured blinds and picture transparencies. The opposing party, however, claimed for these modern revivals "the union of the severe and excellent drawing of early Florentine oil-paintings with the colouring and arrangement of the glass-paintings of the latter half of the 16th century."[3] Four windows by Schnorr were installed at St Paul's: three in the chancel (removed in 1888) and one at the west end (destroyed in 1941).[8] Most of the Munich glass at Glasgow was removed during the 20th century.[9]
In August 2016, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., returned a drawing in its collection,A Branch with Shriveled Leaves (1817) by Schnorr, to the heirs ofDr. Marianne Schmidl (1890–1942), an Austrian ethnologist who was murdered in theHolocaust.[10]
The Gallery first became aware of Marianne Schmidl's tragic fate and the duress attending the sale of her family's drawing collection from restitutions to her family announced by European institutions, including the Albertina in Vienna (2013), the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (2014), and the Kupferstich-Kabinett, Dresden (2015). Subsequent research by Nancy Yeide, head of the department of curatorial records and the Gallery's World War II provenance research expert, confirmed the circumstances of the sale of the drawings by Schmidl.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Schnorr von Karolsfeld, Julius".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 24 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 345.
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