Splinters

Wagner In Pictures

There was an interesting piece in the Guardian this week about the renaissance of interest in the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich, whose huge canvases and themes of man dwarfed by nature are considered the epitomy of German Romantic painting. The article reckons " The emptiness and mysticism of Friedrich's vistas, populated only by the ghosts of German heroes, have made him the visual equivalent to Wagner: a grimly scarred anti-hero in the hall of cultural giants." There's something to that, but I always thought there was something nearer King Lear about Friedrich's paintings - the vast, indifferent nature of , er, Nature to the existence of humans. Just take a look at paintings like The Monk And The Sea. (This is where it becomes apparent that the Net will never replace books because reproductions of artworks for webpages are universally lousy. Better off buying a proper monograph about an artist if you really want some idea of the real thing).

I discovered Friedrich because Penguin used his works to illustrate the front covers of their editions of Nietzsche's works - who says you should never judge a book by its cover? Sadly they've changed them all now to put pictures of Niezsche on the front instead. However, Londoners can see Friedrich up close and personal in the exhibition Spirit of an Age: 19th-Century Paintings from the Nationalgalerie, Berlin, at The National Gallery, London WC2 (020-7747 2885), from March 7 until May 13. Well worth your time.