Melchizedek Blessing Abraham

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld was an important figure within the Romantic movement that spread throughout Germany in the early 1800s. He was a member of the Nazarenes, a loosely formed group of young artists who rejected their conservative training in favor of a restrained style that they hoped would spiritually elevate those who viewed it. Schnorr von Carolsfeld is best known today for the Picture Bible , an expansive series of drawings created as illustrations for episodes from scripture. This drawing presents a scene from the Book of Genesis, evoking a dramatic episode with a restrained style characteristic of the Nazarenes’ work around this time. The Picture Bible , the series to which this drawing belongs, was originally a group project conceived by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld and the Nazarenes, but he took over execution of the project around 1824.