Statue of the Madonna in the Mountains, Caspar David Friedrich (1804)
This vast landscape by one of the central figures of German Romanticism dates from Caspar David Friedrich’s early years in Dresden.
Subtly graded shades of gray wash evoke the gloomy, overcast days so common in Germany in November, when this image was created.
In the center of the landscape, atop the highest peak, a tiny pilgrim kneels in prayer at the base of a statue of the Madonna. Nature—with its sheer, blank sky, stark hills, and mute firs—is depicted almost religiously. In this deeply spiritual image, humankind’s experience of nature seems as overwhelming as the unfathomable mystery of our existence.
