Schnorr von Carolsfeld, BARON JULIUS

Schnorr von Carolsfeld, BARON JULIUS, painter, was born at Leipzig on 26th March 1794, and was trained as a painter by his father (likewise an artist) and at the Vienna Academy. In Vienna he became associated with the German school of Cornelins, Overbeck, Schadow, and Veit, who went back for their inspiration to the old masters anterior to the days of Raphael, and in 1818 he followed them to Rome. But though he agreed with them in principle, he avoided their extremes, and was the only one of them who remained a Protestant. For the walls of the Villa Massimi at Rome he executed, as his share of the work, nearly two dozen frescoes from Ariosto's Orlando (1820-26). The year after the completion of this labour he was called by King Louis of Bavaria to fill the chair of Historical Painting in the Academy of Munich, and was besides commissioned to paint for the king's new palace and other royal apartments a series of frescoes illustrative of the Nibelungenlied and of the lives of Charlemagne, Frederick Barbarossa, and Rudolph of Hapsburg. In 1846 he accepted the appointment of professor at the Fine Art Academy in Dresden, coupled with the directorship of the royal picture-gallery. Schnorr's designs for 180 pictures to illustrate the narratives of the Bible (Bible Pictures, Lond. 1860) are accounted by many authorities the best things he did. The illustrations for Cotta's great edition of the Nibelungen Not were also designed by him; and his skill as a draughtsman and designer are further exhibited in stained-glass windows in St Paul's Cathedral, London, and in Glasgow Cathedral. Amongst his representative easel-pictures may be quoted the 'Marriage at Cana,' 'Jacob and Rachel,' 'Three Christian and Three Heathen Knights of Ariosto,' 'Ruth in Boaz's Wheat-field,' 'Christ Bearing the Cross,' 'Siegfried and Kriemhild,' and 'Luther at Worms.' His best qualities are balance of arrangement, freedom of design, and vivacity, together with many happy inspirations; in fact, he had too many ideas, and did not give himself time to mature them properly. Besides, his work is frequently too decorative in effect, and the figures lack individuality and dignity. Schnorr died in Dresden, 24th May 1872. See Art Journal (1865).