Christ Raises the Daughter of Jairus

In 1810, Friedrich Overbeck arrived in Rome accompanied by his friend Franz Pforr, with whom the previous year he had founded the ‘Lukasbund’ (‘Brotherhood of St. Luke’). True to the group’s ideals, he focused entirely on putting his life and art in the service of the Christian faith. Certainly, this ideological framework seems pertinent to the clear pedagogical intent with which Overbeck depicts the miracle of the 12-year-old daughter of the synagogue-elder Jairus being brought back to life. Accounts of this episode appear in the Gospels of Mark (5:22-23; 35-43) and Luke (8:40-42; 49-54), which Overbeck interprets to convey faithfully the certainty of new life promised in the words: ‘Be not afraid, only believe’. Every aspect of the work’s content, composition, and execution is consistent with the Nazarene movement’s understanding of art, as developed by those working in the artistic circle in Rome that had formed around Overbeck. These ideas were to continue to play a key influence in the work of his friends and students, surviving longest in Overbeck’s (increasingly stilted) later works.