Career
Heinrich Maria Hess employed him on the frescoes in the Church of All Saints. After he had painted compositions depicting four of the sacraments, Cornelius took him to Rome. Here Seitz found in Overbeck a man of the same religious opinions, with a style which he at once sought to make his own.
Besides some secular compositions, as the genre pictures of the life of the common people at Rome, he treated pre-eminently scenes and persons of the Old and New Testaments.
The Saint Anthony, and Saint Benedict, as engraved by the Capuchin Bernardo da Monaco, and his Mater Amabilis aroused admiration. An enthroned Madonna went to England.
Among his other works are: Translation of Saint Catherine to Sinai by angels, and a round picture of Rest during the Flight to Egypt. In this three angels worship Christ, who lies with outstretched arms on the lap of the mother, while at some distance is Joseph with the beast of burden.
In the Trinità dei Monti in Rome he painted in fresco the return of the Prodigal son and Christ with heart aflame.