554 OVERBECK, FRIEDRICH. 



OWEN, JOHN J. 



connect the State with San Francisco, and 

 with the Central Pacific south of the Blue 

 Mountains. It is expected also that a hranch 

 of the Northern Pacific, which is already well 

 under way, will be constructed to Portland, 

 Oregon. 



OVERBECK, FEIEDRICH, an eminent Ger- 

 man painter, born at Lubeck, July 3, 1789 ; died 

 in Rome, November, 1869. He commenced 

 his studies as an artist at Vienna in 1806 ; but 

 having adopted certain notions on art, and the 

 mode of studying it, essentially different from 

 those inculcated in the academy, he was ex- 

 pelled, together with certain other students 

 who entertained the same views, and in 1809 

 went to Rome. Here he was soon afterward 

 joined by Cornelius and Schadow ; and these 

 three; animated by similar ideas, and mutually 

 encouraging each other, laid the foundation of 

 a school that now holds a high rank, and has 

 in no small degree influenced the taste for art 

 in Europe at the present time. A picture of 

 the Madonna, which he painted at Rome in 

 1811, brought him into marked notice. He 

 was next employed, together with his asso- 

 ciates, by the Prussian consul, Bartholdi, to 

 decorate his villa with frescos, and here Over- 

 beck executed his "Joseph Sold into Cap- 

 tivity," and " The Seven Years of Famine." 

 After completing these he painted in fresco, in 

 the villa of the Marchese Massini, five large 

 compositions from Tasso's " Jerusalem Deliv- 

 ered." In 1814, with several of his associates, 

 he embraced the Roman Catholic faith, and 

 from that time devoted his pencil more ex- 

 clusively than ever to religious subjects. His 

 chief work is a fresco at Assisi, " The Miracle 

 of -Roses of St. Francis," and his greatest pic- 

 ture in oil-colors is " The Influence of Religion 

 on Art," preserved in the Stadel Institute in 

 Frankfort. One of his last undertakings, a 

 series of designs from the Evangelists, deli- 

 cately engraved in the line manner, is a work 

 of great merit. Through his entire career as 

 an artist, he adhered to the views with which 

 he started, viz. : a thorough devotion to the 

 style of the Italian masters prior to the period 

 of the Renaissance, and a strong impression 

 that form or drawing in the style of Greek or 

 classic art is inadmissible in works embodying 

 religious subjects. Most of his best works are 

 familiar throughout Europe and America, and 

 the most distinguished German engravers have 

 employed themselves in reproducing his com- 

 positions. 



OWEN, JOHN JASON, D. D., LL. D., an emi- 

 nent Greek scholar, author, and commentator; 



born at Colebrook, Connecticut, August 13, 

 1803 ; died in New York City, April 18, 1869. 

 His parents having removed to Kingsboro, 

 New York, he commenced his preparations for 

 an academic course under the tutorship of the 

 Rev. Elisha Yale. He graduated at Middle- 

 bury College, Vermont, in 1828, and at the 

 Andover Theological Seminary, Massachusetts, 

 in September, 1831. The following year he 

 took up his residence in New York, was 

 ordained to the Christian ministry by the 

 Third Presbytery, and immediately became 

 connected, as secretary, with the Presbyterian 

 Educational Society. He occasionally occu- 

 pied his leisure time in preaching, but never 

 took charge of any church. When the Corne- 

 lius Institute was established, he took direct 

 control of it. About that time he commenced 

 perfecting his knowledge of Greek and Latin, 

 devoting his spare hours to their study with 

 his own ardor and assiduity. He was particu- 

 larly fond of the former language. The result 

 was, the appearance at different times of trans- 

 lations of several Greek authors, which have 

 since become text-books and standard works 

 of reference in many educational institutions. 

 Among them may be mentioned his Greek 

 Reader, a preparatory book, which was first 

 issued in 1842; Homer's Iliad, 1851; Thucy- 

 dides, 1849, and also Homer's Odyssey, and 

 Xenophon's Anabasis and Cyropaedia. These 

 books attracted considerable attention and 

 scrutiny, and were warmly welcomed by all 

 scholars. It was a frequent remark of Prof. 

 Owen's that theological students were un- 

 able to combine the study of Greek and of 

 the Bible at the same time, to remedy which 

 he finally translated the Acts of the Apostles 

 into Greek, appending a dictionary of the 

 words in the same language. His most exten- 

 sive literary undertaking was his Commen- 

 taries on the Gospels, the first volume of which 

 appeared in 1857. Two volumes have since 

 been printed, and manuscript for a third was 

 in readiness for the printer at the time of his 

 death. In November, 1848, Prof. Owen re- 

 tired from the head of Cornelius Institute, in 

 order to accept an appointment as Professor 

 of the Latin and Greek Languages and Lit- 

 erature at the New York Free Academy. 

 On the 7th of July, 1853, he was chosen 

 Vice-Principal of the academy under Pro- 

 fessor Webster, continuing as such until the 

 2d of May, 1866, when the name of the In- 

 stitution was changed to that of the New 

 York Free College, of which he became Vice- 

 President. 





