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Veit Philipp |
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:Hai-Yen Hua text:Nobert Suhr, Dictionary of Art, Bd. 32, 1996 |
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(b Berlin, 13 Feb 1793; d Mainz, 18 Dec 1877). German painter. The son of Dorothea Mendelssohn and Simon Veit and the stepson, from 1804, of Friedrich von Schlegel, 1808-11 he studied e at the Akademia in Dresden under Friedrich Matthäi (1777-1845) and Caspar David Friedrich. He showed talent in drawing but, on moving to Vienna in 1811, had difficulties with painting in oil. Through Schlegel, Veit came to know many of the leading
Romantics in Vienna, such as the poet and novelist Joseph von Eichendorff.
In 1813-14 Veit took part in the campaign against Napoleon and returned
briefly to Berlin. In 1815 he completed a votive picture, The Virgin
with Christ and |
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In Rome he joined the circle around Friedrich Overbeck and Peter Cornelius, becoming a leading Nazarene (see Nazarenes). With these artists he took part in providing fresco decorations (1816-17) for the Casa Bartholdy: Veit painted the scene of Joseph and Potiphar's Wife and a decorative lunette allegory, The Seven Years of Plenty (both now & Berlin, N.G.). |
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n 1818 Veit was commissioned to paint the
fresco The Triumph of Religion in the Museo Chiaramonti in the Vatican,
one of series of murals recording the services of Pope Pius VII
to science and art. Veit also took part in the decoration of the
Casino Massimo in Rome (1818-24), painting the ceiling of the Dante
Room with the Heavens of the Blessed and the Empyrean ( in situ
).
In these frescoes and in his Maria Immaculata in SS Trinità dei Monti (1829-30; in situ) Veit proved himself the finest colourist of the Nazarene artists. While in Rome Veit also painted some excellent portraits, notably a Self-portrait (c. 1816; Mainz, Landesmus., see fig.). Veit also produced a fine series of pencil drawings of his fellow German artists in Rome (e.g. Mainz, Landesmus). |
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In 1830 Veit returned to Germany to take
up the post of Director at the Städelsches Kunstinstitut in
Frankfurt am Main. He was responsible for the enlargement of the
gallery collection as well as the education of students. Among those
who studied under Veit were Alfred Rethel and Eduard Jakob von Steinle.
In about 1832 Veit painted allegorical murals for the Kunstinstitut; these alluded to the contents of the collection and embodied the theories of art and history embraced by Veit and Schlegel. Veit's pictorial programme culminated in the three-part fresco, The Introduction of the arts to Germany through Christendom ( 1832-6; in situ; other murals destr.). Veit produced several religious pictures while in Frankfurt, the most successful of these being the Two Marys at Christ's Grave (several versions, e.g. 1846; & Berlin, N.G.). In these he avoided sentimental figures in a sparse landscape. Veit was not only among those who embarked on the decoration of the Kaisersaal in the Frankfurt Römer (Council Chamber) - he painted four portraits of Emperors (Otto I, Friedrich II,Heinrich VII and Charlemagne; in situ) - but first of all he initiated the project. Veit abandoned his earlier bright palette in favor of a more reticent coloration, using tones often mixed with grey and brown. Working on a more intimate scale too, he produced some excellent portraits of women, for example that of Marie von Bernus (1838; Frankfurt am Main, Städel. Kstinst.). |
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| In 1843, after lengthy disagreements with the Städelsches Kunstinstitut administration, Veit resigned the office of Director and moved, with his students, into studios in the Deutschordenshaus in Sachsenhausen, Frankfurt. In 1853 he moved to Mainz, in order to decorate the cathedral, providing designs and cartoons (Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett and Mainz, Landesmus.) that his students executed in encaustic (from 1861) on the cathedral walls (preserved only the murals with the life of Christ, cathedral nave). Veit did not succeed in linking either this work or his oil paintings to the achievements of his early years in Frankfurt. He returned to the theme of Martyrdom of St Sebastian, for the altarpiece of the church of St Stephan in Mainz in 1866 (destr.) . His remarkable Self-portrait (1873) of Landesmus. Mainz reveals with its veiled greens and brown and loose brushstrokes, that Veit was aware of the new tendencies in painting in France and Munich. | ||
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