Extreme fine historical religious painting created in 1835  in the manner of the renown Nazarene School. The author of this high romantical work is listed Austrian historical artist Ignaz Dullinger ( sometimes falsely mentioned as "Dallinger "), which works are very rare on the art market. He was born 1808 in Muenzkirchen in Upper Austria, studied at the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts in 1828 - 1830. From 1834 to 1849 Dullinger exhibited his religious works by academical exhbitions of St.Anna ( "Heilige Familie"; " Petrus verflucht den zauberer Simon"; "Engel tragen die sterbliche Hülle der hl.Katharina auf den Berg Sinai"). In the National Austrian Painting Gallery "Belvedere" situated his historiical work "Das Scherflein der Witwe", dated year later as our painting (see cataloque of Belvedere, Vienna, 1992). The term "Nazarene": was adopted by a group of early 19th century Austrian and German Romantic painters who aimed to revive honesty and spirituality in Christian art. The name Nazarene came from a term of derision used against them for their affectation of a biblical manner of clothing and hair style. In 1809, six students at the Vienna Academy formed an artistic cooperative in Vienna, called the Brotherhood of St. Luke or Lukasbund. In 1810 four of them Johann Friedrich Overbeck, Franz Pforr, Ludwig Vogel, Johann Konrad Hottinger moved to Rome, where they were joined by Philipp Veit, Peter von Cornelius, Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, Friedrich Schadow and a loose grouping of other German artists. They met up with Austrian romantic landscape artist Joseph Anton Kopch, who became an unofficial tutor to the group. In 1827 they were joined by Joseph von Führich (1800-1876). The principal motivation of the Nazarenes was a reaction against Neoclassicism and the routine art education of the academy system. They hoped to return to art which embodied spiritual values, and sought inspiration in artists of the late Middle Age and early Renaissance, rejecting what they saw as the superficial virtuosity of later art. In Rome the group lived a semi-monastic existence, as a way of re-creating the nature of the medieval artist´s workshop. Religious subjects dominated their output, and two major commissions allowed them to attempt a revival of the medieval art of fresco painting. Two fresco series were completed in Rome for the Casa Bartholdy (1816–17) (moved to the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin) and the Casino Massimo (1817–29), and gained international attention for the work of the ´Nazarener´. However, by 1830 all except Overbeck had returned to Germany and the group had disbanded. Many Nazareners became influential teachers in German art academies.

Literature : "Bestandskatalog des 19 Jahrhunderts " of Austrian Gallery Belvedere, p.206-207, Vienna, 1992; Dictionary of Austrian Painters of the 19th Century by Dr.H.Fuchs, Vienna 1972; Thieme/Becker "Lexicon of artists from antique to contemporary", Leipzig, 1999

Inscription: signed and dated 1835, lower left.

Technique: oil on canvas. Beautiful original period gold-plated frame .

Measurements: unframed w 25 1/4 " x h 31 1/5" (64 x 79 cm); framed w 30 3/4" x h 36 2/3" (78 x 93 cm)

Condition: in very good condition, original canvas , no inpaintings