Felsformation mit Vegetation (_) 

Johann Georg Wagner created this artwork, "Felsformation mit Vegetation," using pen and gray ink and gray wash. Observe how the jagged peak of the central rock formation evokes a primal sense of awe and the sublime. Mountains have long served as symbols of spiritual transcendence and formidable barriers, appearing in various cultural narratives from Mount Olympus to the biblical Mount Sinai. Consider, for example, Caspar David Friedrich's "Wanderer above the Sea of Fog," where the solitary figure atop a mountain contemplates the vast unknown. Similarly, in Wagner's sketch, the stark, towering rock may represent the individual's struggle to comprehend the infinite. This echoes a collective human experience, a shared memory of confronting nature's overwhelming power. The viewer experiences nature as a powerful, almost fearful presence. Thus, the mountain motif persists, resurfacing across eras, its fundamental emotional resonance transformed yet forever anchored in our cultural psyche.