Saturday, April 21, 2012

The Ruin which never was

"Cloister Cemetery in the Snow" (1817-19) by Caspar David Friedrich is probably one of the most famous ruin paintings, romantic ruin at its purest.

But what not so much people know is that the ruin never existed. Its pattern was a drawing called "The Jacobi Church in Greifswald as a Ruin" done in 1815. The joke is that the Jacobi Church is still standing in Greifswald and never has been a ruin.

When Caspar David Friedrich drew it as a ruin he did more or less the same as some geeks of today when they are changing some photos with photoshop into post-apocalyptic views.

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