Tombs of the Fallen in the Fight for Independence

Friedrich painted this in 1812, with French troops occupying much of Germany and Napoleon about to march on Russia. It looks like a quiet study of old tombs in a rocky gorge, but almost nothing here is neutral. The graves belong to ancient German heroes, and one carries a reference to Arminius, the chieftain who wiped out three Roman legions in the year 9. In Friedrich's day that ancient defeat of Rome was read as a mirror for the fight against France. Look at the mouth of the cave and you find two small soldiers in French-style helmets, strayed among the enemy dead. Friedrich had climbed for this the summer before, sketching a real cave on the Hartenberg in the Harz mountains.