Escaping to Italy

Like the Nazarenes before them, German artists in the later nineteenth century continued to make their way to Italy. The presence there of these Deutschrömer, or German-Romans, attested to a German belief in a spiritual affinity between the two lands. The Italy these painters depicted could be seen as a kind of idealized Germany, where pure feeling and ideal beauty still predominated. Their paintings served as a foil to the naturalism that held sway at home and influenced artists working there, such as Moritz von Schwind. They also anticipated the symbolism that would become important at the end of the century.

Anselm Feuerbach's most ambitious paintings are high-minded allegories cast in the visual language of the classical tradition. He was not immune to the sensual beauty of Italy, as depictions of his mistress, Nanna Risi, confirm. Arnold Böcklin, the leader of the German-Romans, was famous throughout German-speaking Europe and extravagantly praised for his depictions of sun-drenched land infused with nostalgia for the classical past. By the time of his death, a strong reaction had set in among modernists. One influential critic, Julius Meier-Graefe, argued that the problem with German art was Böcklin: until his influence was overthrown in favor of more purely formal values, German art could not advance.

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