Beuron school

Beuronese art has been suggested by several scholars to have had a large influence on the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt. In 1898, shortly after the beginning of the Vienna Secession, Father Desiderius Lenz had his book published – Zur Aesthetic der Beuroner Schule ('On the Aesthetics of the Beuron School'). It is assumed that Klimt read Lenz's work with enthusiasm, and images of Beuron Abbey, for instance, may show sections of the decorated ceiling which appear to have made quite a direct impact on Klimt's decorative, golden paintings.

• Illustration — A Jubilee Saint Benedict Medal by Desiderius Lenz, made for the 1400th anniversary of the birth of Saint Benedict in 1880 One of the most complete collections of Beuronese art is located at Conception Abbey in Conception, Missouri, which was founded by Benedictine monks who immigrated to the United States from Engelberg Abbey in Switzerland. According to the abbey's website, "Beuronese art was revolutionary for its time, and also characteristic of its time. It offered a stylized, simplified, and hieratic approach to art which went against the grain of contemporary romantic forms." A series of murals depicting the Life of the Virgin was created under the direction of Desiderius Lenz, Gabriel Wuger, and Lukas Steiner between 1880 and 1887 for the Benedictine Abbey of Emmaus in Prague. Subsequently destroyed by fire in 1945 during World War II, two copies of this set are still in existence. A set was created for St. Mary's German Church in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, between 1908 and 1910 by the Revs. Bonaventure Ostendorp and Rapheul Pfister of the Order of Saint Benedict at St. Anselm College in Goffstown, New Hampshire. The church was demolished in 1996. However, the Life of the Virgin series was restored and relocated to Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church in Carnegie, Pennsylvania. A second set of duplicates resides at the abbey church of the Immaculate Conception Benedictine Abbey in Conception, Missouri.