Caspar David Friedrich

This painting of a ruined abbey is dominated by a “Trinitarian” set of windows. A closer view reveals a statue of the Virgin Mary and a crucifix.

The beginnings of the 19th century saw a remarkable spiritual revival in Germany. It was represented by Catholics but also by Protestants. This movement – Romanticism – strove for a recovery of the sacred. Now around 1800 certain of the leading German romantics started to take a specifically Christian, even Catholic direction. It was one of the religious revivals (one also thinks of the Tractarians in England) that revived Christianity and the Catholic Church after the collapse of the 18th century.

One of foremost exemplars of Romanticism in the visual arts was Caspar David Friedrich. He is currently the subject of a splendid exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Friedrich’s art emphasizes the less obvious, the mysterious, “the road less traveled.” In general landscapes predominate. There are many scenes of the twilight but also of the sunrise. In some paintings the symbolist movement of the end of the 19th century is foreshadowed. Other paintings remind the viewer even of 20th century abstract art. It’s a marked contrast with the dominant artistic tendency of art at that time: neo-classicism. In all respects it preserves a spiritual focus – a symbolic meaning almost always lies beneath the surface.

I cannot recommend the explantory materials provided on the exhibition which typify the attitudes that prevail in Germany today rather than clarifying what Friedrich himself intended. But for those who preserve a spiritual view of the world this exhibition is immensely rewarding.

More on the Exhibition:

Caspar David Friedrich:The Soul of Nature

(Exhibition runs through May 11)