The art of Caspar David Friedrich 1808
This tutorial focuses exclusively on the art of Caspar David Friedrich, whose work best exemplifies Romanticism’s interest in the big questions of man’s mortality and place in the universe. The world had changed dramatically since the time of Michelangelo, Bernini and Rembrandt, and as a result, Friedrich approached these big questions without the Christian narratives that dominated the art of the past. And like his English counterparts during this period, he imbues nature and the landscape with symbolic and often spiritual meaning. The Monk by the Sea is an oil painting by the German Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich. It was painted between 1808 and 1810 in Dresden. For its lack of concern with creating the illusion of depth—which had been a traditional aspect of landscape painting—The Monk by the Sea was Friedrich's most radical composition. The broad expanses of sea and sky emphasize the meager figure of the monk, standing before the vastness of nature and the presence of God. |