by those of his pupils who elected to
follow and to assist him. At the death of Director Langer, 1824-1825, he
became director of the Munich Academy.

The fresco decorations of the Ludwigskirche, which were for the most
part designed and executed by Cornelius, are perhaps the most important
mural works of modern times. The large fresco of the Last Judgment, over
the high altar in that church, measures 62 ft. in height by 38 ft. in
width. The frescoes of the Creator, the Nativity, and the Crucifixion in
the same building are also upon a large scale. Amongst his other great
works in Munich may be included his decorations in the Pinakothek and in
the Glyptothek; those in the latter building, in the hall of the gods
and the hall of the hero-myths, are perhaps the best known. About the
year 1839-1840 he left Munich for Berlin to proceed with that series of
cartoons, from the Apocalypse, for the frescoes for which he had been
commissioned by Frederick William IV., and which were intended to
decorate the Campo Santo or royal mausoleum. These were his final works.

Cornelius, as an oil painter, possessed but little technical skill, nor
do his works exhibit any instinctive appreciation of colour. Even as a
fresco painter his manipulative power was not great. And in critically
examining the execution in colour of some of his magnificent designs,
one cannot help feeling that he was, in this respect, unable to do them
full justice. Cornelius and his associates endeavoured to follow in
their works the spirit of the Italian painters. But the Italian strain
is to a considerable extent modified by the Durer heritage. This Durer
influence is manifest in a tendency to overcrowding in composition, in a
degree of attenuation in the proportions of, and a poverty of contour
in, the nude figure, and also in a leaning to the selection of Gothic
forms for draperies. These peculiarities are even noticeable in
Cornelius's principal work of the "Last Judgment," in the Ludwigskirche
in Munich. The attenuation and want of flexibility of contour in the
nude are perhaps most conspicuous in his frescoes of classical subjects
in the Glyptothek, especially in that representing the contention for
the body of Patroclus. But notwithstanding these peculiarities there is
always in his works a grandeur and nobleness of conception, as all must
acknowledge who have inspected his designs for the Ludwigskirche, for
the Campo Santo, &c. If he were not dexterous in