1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Carstens, Armus Jacob

CARSTENS, ARMUS JACOB (1754–1798), German painter, was born in Schleswig, and in 1776 went to Copenhagen to study. In 1783 he went to Italy, where he was much impressed by the work of Giulio Romano. He then settled in Lübeck as a portrait painter, but was helped to visit Rome again in 1792, and gradually produced some fine subject and historical paintings, e.g. “Plato’s Symposium” and the “Battle of Rossbach”—which made him famous. He was appointed professor at Berlin, and in 1795 a great exhibition of his works was held in Rome, where he died in 1798. Carstens ranks as the founder of the later school of German historical painting.