Easter Morning

The Brotherhood of St. Luke founded in 1809 by Overbeck, Pforr et al as the key cell of the Nazarenes sought to rejuvenate art in the Christian, national sense by re- surrecting the devotional image. Overbeck as the brains of the movement recommended that the path to nature lead through Dürer, that to the sublime through Michelangelo, and that to the beautiful through Raphael. A successful combination of all three can be discerned in his masterpiece depicting Christ’s encounter with Maria Magdalena. Nature becomes the stage for an ‘Ereignisbild’, a history painting with a topical relevance, whereby the event itself is rendered with a soft mood about it. The statue-like stiffness of the figures, their frozen gestures and the respectful distance between the tender blessing offered by the Saviour and Maria Magdalena as well as the staggered levels of the image reference a return to the art of the Early Renaissance. Here, there is none of the emotional tension that is otherwise typical of representations of the ‘Noli me tangere’. Formal stringency, subdued tones, visual linearity and a scene infused with Christian sublimation make the piece a prototype of the art of the Nazarenes. (Bettina Baumgärtel)