Cross in the Mountains, Caspar David Friedrich (1808)

                This painting by Caspar David Friedrich shows a sunset happening on a mountaintop where, slightly off center of the painting, there is a cross with a figure on it.  This piece was a unlike any other religious artwork that had been made up to the time.  First of all it is a landscape painting where a large amount of the focus of the painting is not on its subject but on the rocks, trees, and clouds that make up the surrounding area.

This painting conveys God’s Glory less through depicting him or a symbol but by showcasing his work.  The sunset in the background is shooting over the mountains in rays and the trees are thriving at the very tip of a rocky mountain where little healthy soil exists.  The Mountain itself helps showcase God’s superiority.  At the very tip of the mountain is a cross.  The highest thing in the picture even higher than sun is only outreached by a cross.