Art technical research on easel painting of the Nazarene Movement

• Applicant: Dr. Eva Reinkowski-Häfner
• Subject Area: Art History
• Term: from 2017 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 390400115

The project Art technical research on easel painting of the Nazarene Movement is sited at the University of Bamberg s Institute of Archaeology, Heritage Sciences and Art History with the Department of Conservation Science and its affiliated Competence Centre; this offers an interdisciplinary approach involving art history, conservation and science. The object of research is the painting technique of the Nazarene movement. They were the first 19th century artists to engage with mediaeval and Renaissance German and Italian Masters in their work. These painters hoped to revitalise art with their religious orientation and with their adoption of the 15th and 16th century painting.Previous research has treated their easel-painting technique as a variant of the classical academic oil painting of the early 19th century. Their recourse to the painting of German Old Masters and that of the Italian Early Renaissance, however, suggests that they followed the example of the Old Masters in their adoption of painting technique and use of materials. The question now is whether they also developed their own new way of easel-painting based on the painting technique of the Old Masters, as has already been documented regarding their wall-painting. The question of the development of an individual painting style and of the use of materials and painting technique shall be established by a comparison of paintings from the Viennese and Roman periods in the works of Peter Cornelius, Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, Johann Friedrich Overbeck, Franz Pforr, Ludwig Vogel and Wilhelm Schadow. It will not only be attempted to come as close as possible to the work in the studio, but also to the artistic environment, the available opportunities for getting hold of painting materials, as well as the painter s intentions in the selection of materials and the significance that material and painting technique held for the Nazarenes.There is now the possibility to make technical investigations and comparisons of paintings from a variety of museums. A combination of methods from various disciplines shall be employed, namely research into literature and sources, the examination of the paintings surfaces and the scientific investigation of the materials, whereby non-destructive methods of scientific investigation shall be tried out.These investigations will allow conclusions to be drawn about the painting technique of the Nazarenes easel-painting as well as illustrating its influence on the whole of the 19th century.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Cooperation Partners: Professor Dr. Wolfgang Brassat; Professor Dr.-Ing. Rainer Drewello