Cross in the Mountains Critical Reception

Cross in the Mountains was the first major piece Caspar David Friedrich exhibited to a large group. For a newcomer, Friedrich gained a significant amount of attention as the painting was received with intensely mixed reactions.

The level of support shown by Friedrich's loyal friends and supporters was counteracted by harsh attacks from disapproving critics but such controversy certainly helped the artist's rise to fame.

During Christmas of 1808, Friedrich opened his studio to the public. With the windows shut, he put Cross in the Mountains on a table covered in a black cloth to resemble an altar.

The proposed altarpiece commanded the attention of each onlooker who trickled into the studio. Amongst both fan and critic, Cross in the Mountains aroused strong reactions.

Its group of supporters was comprised mainly of anticlassical, extreme nationalists and followers of Naturphilosophic, most of whom were included in Friedrich's circle of friends. An impressive crowd gathered, including royalty.

Marie von Kugelgen, present at the exhibition, said, "I crossed over the other side of Friedrich's studio to see his altarpiece. I found my friends there, including... Prince Bernhard (crown prince of Saxony)... Everyone who came into the room was as moved as if they were entering a church. "

Yet, not everyone shared these feelings of solemn piety. The intensity of awe was both matched and rivaled by critics of Cross in the Mountains. Art critic Basilius von Ramdohr publically rejected the piece attacking it as "a veritable presumption, if landscape painting were to sneak into the church and creep onto the altar. "

He wondered if "it is a good idea to use landscape allegorically to represent a religious concept or even to arouse a sense of reverence."

Von Ramdohr linked his aesthetics with his politics, antagonizing the anti-Enlightenment generation. He was very much pro-French and admired Napoleon (who Friedrich saw as the anti-Christ incarnate). He opposed the German autocracy.

Von Ramdohr opened his January 1809 article, "On a landscape painting intended as an altarpiece" for the Zeitung fun die elegante Welt with an apology. He claimed not to want to publically criticize a contemporary artist's work, but felt that Friedrich's shift from the norm was a "danger" he needed to point out; he'd have felt a coward to remain silent.

To him, the work related "to a spirit that is the unfortunate spawn of the present age and the dreadful omen of a rapidly onrushing barbarism. "

Clearly, he viewed the piece as a threat to the social values he cherished and his aesthetic dislikes stemmed from political differences.

Still, von Ramdohr attacked the aesthetic, his main critique being that landscape could not allegorize a religious idea. It was only possibly to find allegory in nature if it was distorted, which, he implied, Friedrich did.

Von Ramdohr complained that Friedrich could not have seen the sun in the position where the rays converge - for the light to reach the clouds the sun would have to have been close to the horizon which the height of the mountain blocked.

The light falling across the summit of the mountains would only be possible if Friedrich painted from the side with the sun behind him. The view of Cross in the Mountains however, is from behind the mountain below which the sun sinks.

He also considered the frame "tasteless. "

Cross in the Mountains is generally regarded as a masterpiece of Friedrich's by modern day critics for its ingenuity; he singlehandedly changed the idea of traditional landscape.

In 2006 the painting made its first American appearance at the Getty Museum from October to April in the exhibition entitled, "From Caspar David Friedrich to Gerhard Richter: German Paintings from Dresden". The exhibit itself, as well as Cross in the Mountains, was critically acclaimed.