Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840), Megalithic Tomb in Snow, 1807;

Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Galerie Neue Meister

Friedrich established landscape painting in the Romantic period, which no longer looked to classical antiquity for guidance but the Christian Middle Ages. Symbolic motifs such as crosses, tombs, rocks and trees became the focus, invoking atmospheres of loneliness or longing. The paintings shown here were conceived as counterparts. The wintery landscape with its bare oak trees and heathen tomb is redolent of the pre-Christian past, whereas the summery Elbe valley evokes the present. The evergreen spruce trees could be a reference to the endurance of the Christian faith.