The Madonna is impersonal, totally lacking sensuality, delicate as porcelain and expressive precisely of the piety to which Overbeck dedicated his life and for which he strove in his art. The child is looking at his mother, while she for her part is staring straight ahead. Her finger in the book shows where she has her thoughts. She is thinking of the suffering and death that await the Son of Man, but she is not weighed down, for she also knows the continuation of the story. In the background, Overbeck has painted a path leading up the mountain. At the top, the mountain is surmounted by a town characterised by a mysterious ship-like building. It may be that this strange building in Overbeck’s painting is intended to remind us of the Ark, which naturally has come to stand as a symbol of redemption and eternal life. In other words, Mary foresees not only the death of Christ, but also His resurrection.
Overbeck, who derived from Protestant North German, converted to Catholicism in 1813 and spent the rest of his life in Rome. He is considered the most important member of the group of artists who came to Rome in 1810 and became known as the Nazarenes because they dressed in long robes, painted religious motifs and let their hair grow like that of Jesus of Nazareth. They modelled themselves on the artists of the High Renaissance such as Michelangelo, Titian and especially Raphael.
Thorvaldsen and Overbeck knew and respected each other. In 1814, perhaps in order to give Overbeck financial support, Thorvaldsen commissioned a series of drawings based on his Alexander Frieze, which were to serve as patterns for prints in a book, and at a later date there was also talk of the two working together in connection with the design of the Gutenberg monument in the city of Mainz.
