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Joseph Reveals Himself to His Brothers

Peter von Cornelius1816/1817

Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Berlin, Germany

The wall paintings in the Casa Bartholdy were the first opportunity that the artists, initially mocked as “Nazarenes,” had to work as they wanted in accordance with their own concept of art. Creating frescos in the style of the old Italian masters, depicting scenes from the Old Testament, and working as a group: all these elements were eminently compatible with the artistic and ethical ideals of the Nazarenes. The Prussian Consul General in Italy, Jakob Salomon Bartholdy, had put the banqueting room in his private residence at their disposal and provided them with paint and food so that the young artists, whose ideals he was familiar with, could rediscover the almost lost technique of fresco painting and realize their dream of a new form of art: monumental, jointly-created wall paintings. The individual scenes of the fresco, important moments in the story of Joseph, are independent of each other, differing both in the light and in the scale of the figures. Peter Cornelius: “This work makes me the happiest of people, and even if I only had one crust of bread left, I would not change it ... In my breast there beats a sure, prophetic feeling that art will break through from here to a new, beautiful existence.” The two frescos by Cornelius are the finest of the series. Overbeck’s work is less dramatic, although the theme of his picture is of central significance in that it shows the selling of Joseph by his jealous brothers, and thus explains subsequent events. Bartholdy had the artists make sketches of the finished frescos so that he could convince the Prussian king of the skill of the young painters in Rome. Anyone who was interested was welcome to come to see the frescos in his residence. Endangered from 1825 onwards, in 1885, after many trial runs, they were sawn out together with the walls, detached from the masonry behind and re-attached to a wooden framework. In 1887 they were moved from Rome to Berlin where a room was set aside for them on the upper floor of the Nationalgalerie.

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  • Title: Joseph Reveals Himself to His Brothers
  • Creator: Peter von Cornelius
  • Date Created: 1816/1817
  • Physical Dimensions: w290.0 x h236.0 cm
  • Type: Painting
  • Technique and material: Fresco, repainted with Tempera
  • Inv.-No.: A I 419 (08)
  • ISIL-No.: DE-MUS-815114
  • External link: Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
  • Copyrights: Text: © Prestel Verlag / Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Photo: © b p k - Photo Agency / Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Andres Kilger
  • Collection: Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
  • Artist biography: Peter von Cornelius was a German painter. He received his artistic apprenticeship under his father, the director of the Academy of Arts in Düsseldorf. In 1811 he went to Rome where he joined the Nazarene Brotherhood, a group of young German artists with religious goals that included Overbeck, Schadow, Veit and Ludwig Vogel. It was in Rome that he participated in creating the Casa Bartholdy frescoes in 1818. He left Rome after receiving the commission to redesign the academy in Düsseldorf, before working in Munich, heading the adornment of the Glypothek. He later became director of the Munich Academy. His style is characterized by a strong concentration on nature. Von Cornelius created one of the most important mural works of modern times, the fresco decorations of the Ludwigskirche in Munich.
  • Artist Place of Death: Berlin, Germany
  • Artist Place of Birth: Düsseldorf, Germany
  • Artist Dates: 1784-09-23/1867-03-06
Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

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