photo #6441859

German landscape artist Caspar David Friedrich(1774–1840) featured the ruins of Eldena Abbey near Greifswald, Germany in a number of his paintings. He variously depicted them surrounded by solemn oak trees, blanketed by lush vegetation, illuminated by warm sunlight, and dusted by winter snowfall. Typically, the ruins themselves take precedence in Friedrich’s Eldena Abbey paintings, but in this one, he placed them in the distance. Instead, he let a vibrant Altocumulus sky with Cirrus fibratus streaks dominate the frame. Small figures are overshadowed by the ruins, and the ruins overshadowed by the mountains beyond – but all of them together seem belittled under that bright, expansive sky.The ruins of Eldena in the Giant Mountains (1830-34) by Caspar David Friedrich in the collection of the Pomeranian State Museum in Greifswald, Germany.