Peter von Cornelius, Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld…

Peter von Cornelius, Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld and other German artists move to Rome in 1810 and attempt to revive the spirit of medieval Christianity in their painting.

Johann Friedrich Overbeck and Franz Pforr, who founded the semireligious Brotherhood of Saint Luke in 1809, are the guiding spirits of the group, known as the Nazarenes because they wear their hair long.

The Nazarenes, who follow a communal lifestyle in an emulation of medieval monastic life, reject all art from the sixteenth century onward and they hold as their ideal the painting of the Early Renaissance, especially that of Albrecht Durer, Perugino, and Raphael.

Their subjects range from the Old and New Testaments, to the poetry of Dante, and to the history of the Crusades as well as landscapes and portraits.