DOI Artikel:
Parello, Daniel: "From the period of the deepest decline of German ecclesiastical art" - should artistic quality become a criterion for an inventory of stained glass?
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51154#0047
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1. Mayersche Hofkunstanstalt, Christus am Ölberg, Munich, 1888, Landsberg am Lech, Church of the
Assumption of Mary. Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Reinhardhauke
STEP 1: THE REVIVAL OF CHRISTIAN ART
AND THE SPIRIT OF IMITATION
One reason for this development was the art policy of the
Catholic Church. Its ideological prerequisites are based
on religious renewal after the fall of the Holy Roman Em-
pire. The artistic collaborators, the Nazarenes, saw art as
a means for moral education of man and society in the
bosom of Christian faith. The Middle Ages were regar-
ded as exemplary, as society was conceived to have been
harmoniously united in faith at that time. In such a mi-
lieu, the artist, as inspired by faith, was able to create mas-
terpieces in which - figuratively speaking - God himself
guided the brush. Thus, Overbeck writes to Passavant
Art must be spiritual, as the Christian himself should be
a spiritual man and not a carnal, art must be chaste, holy,
far from all lust, not profane and arrogant’.5
In her dissertation on the The Nazarene Movement in
the Context of the Catholic Restoration, from 1992, Gudrun
Jansen examined the political climate in Munich during
5 Overbeck to Passavant, letter from 12th May 1827; quotes after the
exhibition catalogue Johann Friedrich Overbeck. 1789-1989. Zur
zweihundertsten Wiederkehr seines Geburtstages, Museum für
Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte der Hansestadt Lübeck, Behnhaus,
Lübeck, 1989, p. 31.
the reign of King Ludwig I.6 As an opponent of liberalism,
Ludwig strengthened Catholicism and appointed Joseph
Görres to the newly founded university. Jansen found that
the social policy of Görres, characterized by Catholic-
restorative spirit, played a decisive role for the close in-
terplay between ideological and artistic goals [Fig. 4]. He
held that as an organ of religion, art should contribute to
the promotion of living piety in Christian society. Public
opinion was influenced in this direction by the periodi-
cals ‘Eos’ and the ‘Historisch-politische Blätter’.
Heinrich Maria von Hess, who had joined the Naza-
renes in Rome in 1821, eventually became the first direc-
tor of an art institute in Munich, founded by King Ludwig
I in 1827, to revive the art of making stained glass.7 Here,
the Nazarenes Friedrich Overbeck, Moritz von Schwind,
and Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld created designs for
countless windows in stained glass in the following years,
some of which still can be admired today in Regensburg
and Cologne cathedrals. As the most important center of
stained glass production, the Munich School was to set
6 G. Jansen, Die Nazarenerbewegung in Kontext der katholischen
Restauration. Die Beziehung Clemens Brentano - Edward von
Steinie als Grundlage einer religionspädagogischen Kunstkonzep-
tion, Essen, 1992 (Kunstwissenschaft in der Blauen Eule, 8).
7 E. Vaassen, Die kgl. Glasmalereianstalt in München 1827-1874.
Geschichte - Werke - Künstler, Munich and Berlin, 2013.
1. Mayersche Hofkunstanstalt, Christus am Ölberg, Munich, 1888, Landsberg am Lech, Church of the
Assumption of Mary. Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Reinhardhauke
STEP 1: THE REVIVAL OF CHRISTIAN ART
AND THE SPIRIT OF IMITATION
One reason for this development was the art policy of the
Catholic Church. Its ideological prerequisites are based
on religious renewal after the fall of the Holy Roman Em-
pire. The artistic collaborators, the Nazarenes, saw art as
a means for moral education of man and society in the
bosom of Christian faith. The Middle Ages were regar-
ded as exemplary, as society was conceived to have been
harmoniously united in faith at that time. In such a mi-
lieu, the artist, as inspired by faith, was able to create mas-
terpieces in which - figuratively speaking - God himself
guided the brush. Thus, Overbeck writes to Passavant
Art must be spiritual, as the Christian himself should be
a spiritual man and not a carnal, art must be chaste, holy,
far from all lust, not profane and arrogant’.5
In her dissertation on the The Nazarene Movement in
the Context of the Catholic Restoration, from 1992, Gudrun
Jansen examined the political climate in Munich during
5 Overbeck to Passavant, letter from 12th May 1827; quotes after the
exhibition catalogue Johann Friedrich Overbeck. 1789-1989. Zur
zweihundertsten Wiederkehr seines Geburtstages, Museum für
Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte der Hansestadt Lübeck, Behnhaus,
Lübeck, 1989, p. 31.
the reign of King Ludwig I.6 As an opponent of liberalism,
Ludwig strengthened Catholicism and appointed Joseph
Görres to the newly founded university. Jansen found that
the social policy of Görres, characterized by Catholic-
restorative spirit, played a decisive role for the close in-
terplay between ideological and artistic goals [Fig. 4]. He
held that as an organ of religion, art should contribute to
the promotion of living piety in Christian society. Public
opinion was influenced in this direction by the periodi-
cals ‘Eos’ and the ‘Historisch-politische Blätter’.
Heinrich Maria von Hess, who had joined the Naza-
renes in Rome in 1821, eventually became the first direc-
tor of an art institute in Munich, founded by King Ludwig
I in 1827, to revive the art of making stained glass.7 Here,
the Nazarenes Friedrich Overbeck, Moritz von Schwind,
and Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld created designs for
countless windows in stained glass in the following years,
some of which still can be admired today in Regensburg
and Cologne cathedrals. As the most important center of
stained glass production, the Munich School was to set
6 G. Jansen, Die Nazarenerbewegung in Kontext der katholischen
Restauration. Die Beziehung Clemens Brentano - Edward von
Steinie als Grundlage einer religionspädagogischen Kunstkonzep-
tion, Essen, 1992 (Kunstwissenschaft in der Blauen Eule, 8).
7 E. Vaassen, Die kgl. Glasmalereianstalt in München 1827-1874.
Geschichte - Werke - Künstler, Munich and Berlin, 2013.