Gothic Windows in the Ruins of the Monastery at Oybin

Carl Gustav Carus German

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 807

This church, with its fine Gothic tracery, was founded in 1369, deserted in 1546, and later embraced as a motif by German Romantic artists. Carus visited in August 1820, making a drawing (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden) that served as a study for the painting. It depicts a vista through two windows—one on either side of the ruined choir—toward a pale morning sky and distant hill. In its starkness and opposition of dark and light, and with young trees referring to the cycle of life, the image invites both hope and meditation.

Gothic Windows in the Ruins of the Monastery at Oybin, Carl Gustav Carus (German, Leipzig 1789–1869 Dresden), Oil on canvas

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