Great Paintings: Winter Landscape by Caspar David Friedrich
An evocative landscape laden with symbolic mystery
At first glance it is a pared-down, rather desolate looking winter scene; a line of fir trees stands braced against a snowfall as a dark fog hangs like a pall over a distant church.
On closer inspection it’s possible to see a man resting against one of the rocks. His hands are raised in prayer; a wooden cross pressed into the foliage of the tree is the apparent object of his meditation.
A further detail complicates things: a pair of crutches lie abandoned in the snow, giving the sense that the figure has staggered towards the rocks as if he suddenly recognized a place of refuge.
Now perhaps with a little more attention it is possible to see a relationship between the trees and the distant church; how their shapes are the same, their Gothic pinnacles reaching up to the same peach-tones of the coming dawn. Both are symbolic of the hope of resurrection; new shoots of grass sprouting in the snow tell of a new season just around the corner.
