Statue of the Madonna in the Mountains

The drawing also conveys, in the artist’s words, “Not only what he sees before him, but also what he sees within him.” In the center of the landscape, atop the highest peak, a tiny pilgrim kneels in prayer at the base of a statue of the Madonna. Nature—with its sheer, blank sky, stark hills, and mute firs—is depicted almost religiously. In this deeply spiritual image, humankind’s experience of nature seems as overwhelming as the unfathomable mystery of our existence. Just as the infinitesimal pilgrim wanders in this faraway, expansive landscape, so too did the artist embark upon his own Romantic quest, a search for meaning in the natural world that reveals the sacred.