[Script Info]
Title: 
[Events]
Format: Layer, Start, End, Style, Name, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,0:00:04.74,0:00:06.73,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We're in the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin
Dialogue: 0,0:00:06.73,0:00:08.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and we're looking at a Caspar David Friedrich's
Dialogue: 0,0:00:08.82,0:00:10.38,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The Abbey in the Oakwood.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:10.38,0:00:13.28,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's a large painting, and it was one of a pair
Dialogue: 0,0:00:13.28,0:00:15.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that included "The Monk by the Sea."
Dialogue: 0,0:00:15.50,0:00:18.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This is a very somber image and it really is
Dialogue: 0,0:00:18.74,0:00:21.49,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,a perfect example of the way Friedrich used landscape
Dialogue: 0,0:00:21.49,0:00:25.28,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in order to represent issues of human life and
Dialogue: 0,0:00:25.28,0:00:26.97,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of the Divine.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:26.97,0:00:29.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That's right, and in this painting we see
Dialogue: 0,0:00:29.12,0:00:31.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the ruins of an abbey, an old abbey
Dialogue: 0,0:00:31.74,0:00:36.79,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and a procession of figures entering this ruined abbey,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:36.79,0:00:38.49,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,carrying a coffin.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:38.49,0:00:40.51,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And so immediately we have a sense of the passage of time,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:40.51,0:00:43.76,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of the transience of human existence...
Dialogue: 0,0:00:43.76,0:00:46.100,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,We're also looking at, it seems, the dead of winter,
Dialogue: 0,0:00:46.100,0:00:49.08,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and perhaps it's sunset.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:49.08,0:00:51.85,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,If you look at the remnant of architecture that's left
Dialogue: 0,0:00:51.85,0:00:54.74,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you have this, first of all, this very forlorn sense
Dialogue: 0,0:00:54.74,0:00:57.07,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,from the ruins themselves.
Dialogue: 0,0:00:57.07,0:01:00.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You see this old lancet window that's fallen into disrepair.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:00.50,0:01:01.95,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,No glass remains.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:01.95,0:01:04.85,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And you have a real sense of the grandeur of
Dialogue: 0,0:01:04.85,0:01:07.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the original space, but now what's left is just
Dialogue: 0,0:01:07.68,0:01:11.51,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the futility of human experience, the futility of human effort.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:11.51,0:01:16.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And what we see is that nature is eternal, but what man
Dialogue: 0,0:01:16.88,0:01:19.27,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,creates is transient.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:19.27,0:01:22.27,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You have the monks themselves going through their
Dialogue: 0,0:01:22.27,0:01:23.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,ancient ritual of burial.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:23.50,0:01:26.42,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But you see the cemetery that surrounds them in the snow
Dialogue: 0,0:01:26.42,0:01:30.60,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is not well tended, it's haphazard, and it seems to be, itself,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:30.60,0:01:32.18,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,falling into disrepair.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:32.18,0:01:35.72,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The abbey refers back to the Medieval tradition, but that's
Dialogue: 0,0:01:35.72,0:01:36.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,now fallen away.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:36.99,0:01:39.67,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Older than that, are the oak trees,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:39.67,0:01:41.89,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which might have represented, for Friedrich,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:41.89,0:01:44.73,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the Druidic traditions, the pre-Christian traditions,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:44.73,0:01:49.18,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,these truly ancient oaks, gnarled, and terrifying
Dialogue: 0,0:01:49.18,0:01:51.96,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in their silhouettes, but that speak of a tradition,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:51.96,0:01:55.16,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,as witnesses, that are even older than Christianity.
Dialogue: 0,0:01:55.16,0:01:58.60,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And then beyond that, the crescent moon, and the sky,
Dialogue: 0,0:01:58.60,0:02:01.43,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,when you were speaking, that's the nature that I was
Dialogue: 0,0:02:01.43,0:02:03.15,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,looking at that is permanent,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:03.15,0:02:05.100,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that is trans-historical, that moves beyond even
Dialogue: 0,0:02:05.100,0:02:08.65,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the growth and death of the trees.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:08.65,0:02:10.75,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Certainly of the architecture of Man's efforts.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:10.75,0:02:14.75,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The moon having no sense of the cosmos, even beyond
Dialogue: 0,0:02:14.75,0:02:16.80,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the seasons of the Earth.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:16.80,0:02:19.68,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That's right, and so you have this sense of human time,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:19.68,0:02:21.93,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you have this sense of nature's time,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:21.93,0:02:24.60,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and then you have this sense of the time of God's space.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:24.60,0:02:27.88,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And in fact, if there's any optimism in this image,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:27.88,0:02:29.32,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,it is that moon.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:29.32,0:02:32.57,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It is the faintest crescent, and it might wane even more
Dialogue: 0,0:02:32.57,0:02:35.12,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and become a New Moon, but then it will regenerate
Dialogue: 0,0:02:35.12,0:02:37.31,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and there is this possibility for rebirth.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:37.31,0:02:39.15,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,You mentioned that it's the dead of winter,
Dialogue: 0,0:02:39.15,0:02:40.65,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but spring will come.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:40.65,0:02:44.13,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And so even if it seems quite distant now, in this sort of
Dialogue: 0,0:02:44.13,0:02:47.82,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,bleak twilight, there is this sense that there will be renewal.
Dialogue: 0,0:02:47.82,0:02:51.34,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,So we may have a suggestion of resurrection
Dialogue: 0,0:02:51.34,0:02:55.41,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in the cycles of the moon, we have the crosses that are
Dialogue: 0,0:02:55.41,0:02:59.57,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,a part of the cemetery, we have the cross that forms part of
Dialogue: 0,0:02:59.57,0:03:03.77,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the ruin of the abbey, and that suggestion of resurrection.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:03.77,0:03:07.04,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I think what's so interesting about Friedrich is that
Dialogue: 0,0:03:07.04,0:03:10.75,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,he's imbuing a landscape with this very,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:10.75,0:03:15.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,very serious meaning, almost the way that, in the past,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:15.26,0:03:18.42,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,people have looked to the iconography of
Dialogue: 0,0:03:18.42,0:03:23.06,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Christian paintings, Friedrich is looking for modern language
Dialogue: 0,0:03:23.06,0:03:27.63,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,with which to express these trans-historical human feelings,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:27.63,0:03:31.30,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,contemplating our role in the universe, and trying to make
Dialogue: 0,0:03:31.30,0:03:35.24,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,sense of all those layers of time that you referred to before.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:35.24,0:03:38.76,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That's exactly right. Friedrich is finding a new way of
Dialogue: 0,0:03:38.76,0:03:41.15,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,representing these eternal issues, and it makes sense that
Dialogue: 0,0:03:41.15,0:03:44.28,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,he would have to, because this is now the beginning of the
Dialogue: 0,0:03:44.28,0:03:47.40,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,19th century. Friedrich is now living in a rational culture,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:47.40,0:03:50.98,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and the idea of using the iconography of the Renaissance,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:50.98,0:03:53.48,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,or even of the Baroque, would feel implausible.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:53.48,0:03:54.58,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It wouldn't make sense.
Dialogue: 0,0:03:54.58,0:03:58.15,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And so Friedrich, this artist who was trained in Copenhagen,
Dialogue: 0,0:03:58.15,0:04:01.25,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,who grew up in Greifswald, which was then part of Sweden,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:01.25,0:04:03.23,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,on the Southern coast of the Baltic,
Dialogue: 0,0:04:03.23,0:04:06.50,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,is looking towards the very extreme, cold
Dialogue: 0,0:04:06.50,0:04:08.79,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Northern lanscape, as a way of expressing
Dialogue: 0,0:04:08.79,0:04:10.92,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,these ideas of the eternal.