l and religious discipline; in short,
that the rich harvest of later years had found its seed-time here within
the family home in Lubeck.

The old house in which Overbeck was born has unfortunately, within the
last few years, been modernised, but the original medallion relief of
the painter's head, life-size, is built into the new facade, and the
former structure can be accurately ascertained as well from the designs
of the adjoining tenements as from the living testimony of the
neighbours.[1] The Overbeck mansion stood in the Konig Strasse, a
principal thoroughfare in the heart of an old city which may not inaptly
be designated the Nuremberg of Northern Germany. It is not difficult
here on the spot to picture the life of the painter while yet in his
teens. The historic town of Lubeck had enjoyed a signal political,
commercial and artistic epoch. As the head of the Hanseatic League, it
rose to unexampled prosperity. Deputies from eighty confederate
municipalities assembled in the audience-chamber of the Rathhaus;
fortifications, walls and gateways were reared for defence, and merchant
princes made their opulence and love of ostentation conspicuous in
dwellings of imposing and picturesque design; thus pointed gables,
high-pitched overhanging roofs, stamp with mediaeval character the
present streets. Then, too, were founded rich ecclesiastical
establishments; then was built the cathedral, containing among other
treasures matchless brasses, a unique rood-loft, and a double triptych,
the masterpiece of Memling. This sacred work made a deep impression on
young Overbeck, and is known to have given a direction to his art. About
the same period was also reared the Marien Kirche, enriched with bronze
sacrament-house, old German triptychs and fine painted glass. This is
the church in which the painter's father, as Burgomaster, had a
distinguished stall, elaborately carved; and now, on visiting the spot,
I find appropriately among the treasures two chefs-d'oeuvre which the
son affectionately wrought for the city of his birth. These churches are
Protestant, but fortunately the worst sign of the Reformation is
whitewash, and so the relics of the past are reverently conserved, and
here in Lubeck, as in Nuremberg, the Madonna still holds her honoured
niche, and the saints yet shine from out the painted window, even as in
after-years the selfsame characters appeared on the canvases of
Overbeck. Amid associations thus sacred, encircled