Kloster im Gebirge mit großen Terrassen und Treppen c. 1841 - 1847

Johann Nepomuk Rauch created this watercolor titled "Monastery in the Mountains with Large Terraces and Stairs" at an unknown date. This work presents a building of religious significance elevated above the viewer, which speaks to the power of the church. The monastery complex ascends to a distant mountain, blending religious and natural power. Rauch was Austrian, and the imagery here may echo the 19th-century debates in that country about the role of the church. We might consider the historical associations of monastic life. Were monasteries seen as places of progressive learning, or as conservative bastions of the old order? To understand this artwork, we must look beyond the image and into the history of the church in the region where it was made. We also must explore the institutional history of religious foundations. The meaning of this artwork, like all art, is contingent on its social and institutional context.