technical splendours, pictures in which these qualities are held in
subordination to higher aims cannot but sink into the shade. The
spectator is not in the mood to honour a spiritual subject which has
been thought out from a spiritual side. The place in which this picture
should be seen is a chapel, or some such peaceful spot removed from
disturbing surroundings."[9]

I now wish to direct the reader's attention to _The Triumph of Religion
in the Arts_, otherwise _The Magnificat of Art_, or _The Christian
Parnassus_, or the triumph of Mariolatry. This large and elaborate
composition embodied the artist's best thoughts for ten years in the
prime of life, from 1831 to 1840. Accompanying the work was a written
explanation, which comprises a confession of Overbeck's art faith.[10]
The Madonna, with the Infant in her arms, sits enthroned in the upper
half of the canvas, and around, in mid-heaven, are ranged prophets,
evangelists, and saints. On the earth below stand some sixty painters,
sculptors, and architects; the heads as far as possible are taken from
authentic portraits. In the midst is a fountain, the upper waters rising
into the sky, the lower falling into two basins beneath. The painter
explains his meaning as follows: "The fountain in the centre is the
emblem of the well of water springing up into eternal life, thus
denoting the heavenward direction of Christian Art as opposed to the
idea of the ancients, who represented the stream as flowing downwards
from Mount Parnassus. Every manifestation of art therefore is honoured
so far only as it looks towards heaven. The fountain descends into two
mirrors: the upper one reflects heaven, the lower receives earthly
objects; thus is indicated the twofold character of art, which, on the
one hand, in its spiritual essence comes with every good thought from
above, and which, on the other, is derived from the outward forms of
nature. This twofold sphere of art is signified by the position assigned
to the assembled artists in relation to the two mirrors of water."
Overbeck next proceeds to expound his pictorial judgments. He gives
Raphael a white robe as symbolic of universal genius, "for as white
light contains the seven prismatic colours, so does Raphael's art unite
all the qualities we gaze on with wonder." Michelangelo sits apart on a
fragment of antique sculpture, his back turned alike on the Fountain and
the Madonna. I once ventured to ask Overbeck in his studio for some
e