My Favorite Painting

"Abbey in the Oak Forest"
By Caspar David Friedrich of Germany

This is and has been one of my top five favorite paintings of all time. It is not classical, and it is not a painting that most would consider their favorite, but to me, the power and feeling, and sense of morality and hope this painting gives, along with its sheer beauty, is all that a painting should be.
Info on the painting from Wikipedia:
A key innovation of Friedrich's was his use of the landscape genre to evoke religious themes. . Friedrich sought not just to explore the blissful enjoyment of a beautiful view, as in the classic conception, but rather to examine an instant of sublimity, a reunion with the spiritual self through the contemplation of nature. Friedrich said, "The artist should paint not only what he sees before him, but also what he sees within him. If, however, he sees nothing within him, then he should also refrain from painting that which he sees before him. Otherwise, his pictures will be like those folding screens behind which one expects to find only the sick or the dead." Expansive skies, storms, mist, forests, ruins, and crosses bearing witness to the presence of God are frequent elements in Friedrich's landscapes. Death is referenced more directly in paintings like The Abbey in the Oakwood, in which monks carry a coffin past an open grave, toward a cross, through the portal of a church in ruins. The bare oak trees are a recurring element of Friedrich's paintings, symbolizing the "pagan aspect" of death. Countering the sense of despair are Friedrich's symbols for redemption: the cross and the clearing sky promise eternal life, and the slender moon suggests hope and the growing closeness of Christ. In The Abbey in the Oakwood, the movement of the monks away from the open grave and toward the cross and the horizon imparts Friedrich's message that the final destination of man's life lies beyond the grave.
Obsessed with themes of death, Friedrich developed images that, through their silence, sadness, and symbolism, provide meditations on mortality.

I agree with most of this article about the painting, except the last sentence that says he was obsessed with death and the sadness and symbolism is what provides meditation on our mortality. I look at this painting and see so much hope! I love this painting because depending on the viewer it can be taken as a hopeful painting of the resurrection and eternal life, or a painting showing how religion can not save you.
For example, is the sun setting or rising? I feel it is rising. This could symbolize the risen lord, or that death is merely the beginning of a new life, a new day.
I love how vast the landscape and trees are, and how small the people are. To me it shows the plan of eternal life and how much greater the whole picture is then just us.
I also love how it's a ruined church. This could mean so much! To some it could show the corruption of religion, and how God is really in "the landscape".
To me it shows how Christianity is so much more then just church, or the letter of the law. Yes, they are passing through "the ruined church" to the next life, and it could be necessary, but in the grand scheme of things, Christ is in the rising sun, not in the crumbling, skewed crosses.

To me this painting reminds me of eternal life, and the ressurection, not death. And how much God loves us and how grand and perfect His plan is.