Lot Essay
The success of Philipp Veit's fresco Der Triumph der Religion (fig. 1), which was executed for the recently built Galleria Chiaramonte in the Vatican, created a demand for smaller, more portable versions of this painting. This close-up rendition of the bust of the allegorical figure is one of two known versions to have been executed by the artist, and had been commissioned by the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III in 1823.
Kopf der 'Religion' largely dispenses with the symbolic props which are apparent in the original and, instead, concentrates on the stylised features of the central figure. As Norbert Suhr noted: 'The regular, tender, dreamy face with her hair parted in the middle is supposed to represent Countess Julie Zichy, though that cannot be verified, as her portrait has been lost. The not very marked physiognomy with certain 'typical' traits, mediates between allegory and portrait.' (op.cit., p. 46).
Stylistically, as well as in terms of subject matter, the present work epitomises the concerns of the Nazarene movement in Rome, of which Philipp Veit was a member since 1816, just after his arrival in the city. The Nazarenes were a group of German artists who moved to Rome in search of a more direct and authentic artistic and spiritual environment, in reaction to the stagnant academic traditions of their homeland. However, they were not in search of the classical Rome, but the Holy City with its churches and devotional images.
Following the spirit of the celebrated book by Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder Herzensergiessungen eines Kunstliebenden Klosterbruders (Heartfelt Outpourings of an Art-Loving Monk) [1779], these artists found residence in the monastery of San Isidoro, where they divided their days between daily chores and a regulated programme of quiet artistic activities. Their motto might have been taken directly from Wackenroder: 'To live the kind of dependent and tranquil life which will make one aware at any hour that one is nothing but God's workman.' (K. Andrews, The Nazarenes, Oxford, 1964, p. 24).
For Nazarene art was, in fact, exclusively a way of serving Christian religion; this was its function, its explanation and its legitimation. To this end, art from the Gothic and early Renaissance periods, in particular the work of Raphael and Dürer, became the ideal against which their output was measured. Great emphasis was placed on clarity and didactic function. As is exemplified in Veit's Kopf der 'Religion', the severe composition, with the clearly defined contour of the figure and the flat application of colour all make for an image of intense contemplative and spiritual quality.
Because art had an almost missionary function for the Nazarenes, large public commissions, such as the basis of the present picture, the fresco in the Galleria Chiaramonte in the Vatican, became central to the work of Philipp Veit at the time. Thus only a very few oil paintings from this period have survived, making this a truly remarkable discovery.
Kopf der 'Religion' largely dispenses with the symbolic props which are apparent in the original and, instead, concentrates on the stylised features of the central figure. As Norbert Suhr noted: 'The regular, tender, dreamy face with her hair parted in the middle is supposed to represent Countess Julie Zichy, though that cannot be verified, as her portrait has been lost. The not very marked physiognomy with certain 'typical' traits, mediates between allegory and portrait.' (op.cit., p. 46).
Stylistically, as well as in terms of subject matter, the present work epitomises the concerns of the Nazarene movement in Rome, of which Philipp Veit was a member since 1816, just after his arrival in the city. The Nazarenes were a group of German artists who moved to Rome in search of a more direct and authentic artistic and spiritual environment, in reaction to the stagnant academic traditions of their homeland. However, they were not in search of the classical Rome, but the Holy City with its churches and devotional images.
Following the spirit of the celebrated book by Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder Herzensergiessungen eines Kunstliebenden Klosterbruders (Heartfelt Outpourings of an Art-Loving Monk) [1779], these artists found residence in the monastery of San Isidoro, where they divided their days between daily chores and a regulated programme of quiet artistic activities. Their motto might have been taken directly from Wackenroder: 'To live the kind of dependent and tranquil life which will make one aware at any hour that one is nothing but God's workman.' (K. Andrews, The Nazarenes, Oxford, 1964, p. 24).
For Nazarene art was, in fact, exclusively a way of serving Christian religion; this was its function, its explanation and its legitimation. To this end, art from the Gothic and early Renaissance periods, in particular the work of Raphael and Dürer, became the ideal against which their output was measured. Great emphasis was placed on clarity and didactic function. As is exemplified in Veit's Kopf der 'Religion', the severe composition, with the clearly defined contour of the figure and the flat application of colour all make for an image of intense contemplative and spiritual quality.
Because art had an almost missionary function for the Nazarenes, large public commissions, such as the basis of the present picture, the fresco in the Galleria Chiaramonte in the Vatican, became central to the work of Philipp Veit at the time. Thus only a very few oil paintings from this period have survived, making this a truly remarkable discovery.