Editorial
Editorial

Summary/Abstract: The art of the early 19th century and especially the question of its directions after the year 1800 has repeatedly been the subject of attention and interest of art historians in recent decades. The conventional image of the 19th century as a century of varying historicist styles, insisting on academic rules, including linearism in many aspects, sentimental and/or heroic religious and historic imagery and bourgeois taste seems to have more to it than just being a prelude to the modernism that emerged. The underlying currents that shaped the visual arts were deeply connected with the formation of modern as well as conservative European society and thought, which had undergone a major transformation at the turn of the 18th century and broke from the past, ushering in new times of the European nations. Nevertheless, in retrospect, Nazarenes were not part of any progressive movement. On the contrary, their views on what was acceptable as valuable religious art was rigid and borderline messianic.

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