Cross in the Mountains

Cross in the Mountains, also known as the Tetschen Altar, is an oil painting by the German artist Caspar David Friedrich, designed as an altarpiece and completed in 1808. Among Friedrich's first major works, it marked an important break with the conventions of landscape painting by introducing explicit Christian iconography into what had previously been considered a lesser genre of art. Because religious history painting was regarded as the highest genre at the time, Friedrich's use of landscape to carry a spiritual message was controversial, provoking debate between proponents of neoclassical ideals and supporters of the new German Romanticism associated with Friedrich and his circle. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/