Art Museum.

Stephen Altieri
Belvedere Art piece.
Due Feb 24, 2009.

Casper David Friedrich was Born sept 5, 1774 and died may 7, 1840. Friedrich was born in the Swedish Pomeranian town of Greifswald, where he began to study art while still young. He later studied in Copenhagen until 1798. Later that year he settled in Dresden. In the year of his arrival Copenhagen was the center of landscape painting in Germany (Mitchell, 417). He married caroline Bommer January 21,1818. The marriage did not impact his life or personality, however his color pallet became brighter, more colorful, and distinctively more vibrant following their honeymoon (wiki). You can see the brighter colors he started to use displayed on his landscape masterpiece, "Felsenland im Eldandsteingebirge."
During Friedrich's time, his art was influenced by waves of disillusionment across Europe, when people created materialistic societies(wiki). Another major artist of their time period, Ludwig Tieck, described Romanticism as, "...A chaos from which a new certainty must necessarily develop" ( Mitchell, 414). This movement allowed him to give new rise to spirituality throughout his work as a painter. Showing nature is divine creation and could not replace artificial human civilization. This brought that "new certainty".
He was considered the importance of the painting movement. As an artist he said, Friedrich said, "The artist should paint not only what he sees before him, but also what he sees within him. If, however, he sees nothing within him, then he should also refrain from painting that which he sees before him. Otherwise, his pictures will be like those folding screens behind which one expects to find only the sick or the dead." Famous for his landscapes. His interests consisted of contemplations of nature. He wanted to capture symbolism found in landscapes and incorporate the human element to a landscape. He would use painting techniques that direct the viewers gaze towards the metaphysical dimensions. He did this to incorporate religious mysticism. Not only did he capture religion in his art, he was also the first to incorporate political symbols into his landscape painting. This is the main reason he is considered the importance of the painting movement. One example not at the museum, is a landscape of a French soldier standing in the snow before a dark entrance to the woods, with a raven standing behind him. This paining interprets the French stand the farthest away from god, and the prediction of defeat of the French(wiki).
The "Felsenland im Eldandsteingebirge." painting I saw in the museum instantly took my breath away. The painting takes place in the Alps. This painting symbolized a lot, and upon reading the description meant a lot more. To me it symbolized hope. I deciphered despite the grueling places to travel through there is still beauty. This land scape also symbolized a place of safe retreat, showing it is a place where people would not expect to find other people. This location seemed safe also, having a knowledge of the land and a skill to navigate it, the land has more potential to keep you safe than any man made home, castle or fortress .
This painting also caught my interest as a rock climber. This land appeared to be an indestructible portion of land. I thought to my self, this place can not be destroyed, how ever it could be conquered. In the sense of having the ability to navigating to the bottom of the stone pillars. And in return having enough skill and determination to ascend to the top. Then it would be conquered, nothing would be changed, or destroyed, and its beauty would live on forever. For generations to come humans could gaze at its mystery and beauty to be interpreted and judged forever.
The only research I was able to find about this masterpiece of natural elements and ultimate symbolism was that of the artist, and that which was next to the painting. Here the artist shows his interest in bizarre rock formations. Showing a gateway to the natural. I was very impressed by this artists depictions of religion, and the painting makes sense holding such strong religious beliefs. The fallen tree clearly symbolizes death of man, the green foliage and beautiful sky symbolizes god, and the ascending mountains can symbolize the resurrection of Jesus Christ (Museum Plaque). However this masterpiece of bizarre land formations can be directly linked back to many of his old studies. In his note books he had pages of rocks, trees, plants,and other natural forms. These rocks have a direct relation in the sense that they are overgrown, cracked, broken, and split (Mitchell, 420).






Work Cited:

Mitchell, Timothy F. "From Vedute to Vision: The Importance of Popular Imagery in Friedrich's Development of Romantic Landscape Painting." The Art Bulletin 64 (1982): 414-24. Jstor.com College Art Association. 22 Feb. 2009 .


N/A. "Caspar David Friedrich." Wikipedia. .