Blick zur Granitz (Rügenlandschaft) 16 - 1801

Here is a landscape drawing, Blick zur Granitz (Rügenlandschaft), made by Caspar David Friedrich. Note the composition, in which a low-lying landscape is depicted under a vast sky. Friedrich employs the Romantic motif of Rückenfigur, in which the figure, seen from behind, contemplates the landscape before them. A small silhouette in the foreground appears to be viewing the vista. This composition, a figure dwarfed by nature, embodies a sense of the sublime that was sought after during the Romantic Era, that is not unique to this time. Think of classical works of the ancient world, where man looked up to the divine. There is a yearning of the soul, a bridge between the temporal and the eternal, where the natural world is a conduit. We can trace this symbolic language back to medieval devotional images, where saints contemplate heavenly visions. Friedrich is drawing on a well of cultural memory, repurposing a motif to convey a modern sense of awe and introspection.