Heinrich Maria von Hess

Heinrich Maria von Hess (19 April 1798 in Düsseldorf – 29 Märch 1863 in Munich) was a German painter, a member of the Nazarene movement.

[2] Heinrich Hess's skills and reputation attracted the attention of King Maximilian, who sent him in 1821 to Rome, with a stipend, During his four years there, he came under the influence of Johann Friedrich Overbeck.

A copy Hess made of Raphael's Parnassus, and the study of great examples of monumental design, probably caused him to become a painter of ecclesiastical subjects on a large scale.

[1] The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica assesses his work as follows: His fame rests on the frescoes representing scenes from the Old and New Testaments in the Allerheiligencapelle, and the episodes from the life of St Boniface and other German apostles in the basilica of Munich.

Here he holds rank second to none but Overbeck in monumental painting, being always true to nature though mindful of the traditions of Christian art, earnest and simple in feeling, yet lifelike and powerful in expression.