Landschap nabij Burg Schlitz before 1903

Franz Goerke's "Landschap nabij Burg Schlitz", presents a stark, almost primordial landscape, captured in a photogravure print. The image is dominated by the twisted form of an old tree and a rudimentary wooden structure, symbols of nature's endurance and humanity’s attempts to tame it. This tree, gnarled and reaching, echoes the symbolic tree of life, a motif stretching back to ancient mythologies. We see it in the Norse Yggdrasil, connecting realms, and in countless other cultural narratives. The ladder, a vertical element, appears as an early iteration of the alchemical symbol of human endeavor. Such imagery taps into our collective memory, stirring a sense of timelessness, and a deep-seated recognition of our place within a vast, cyclical history. It reminds us that symbols are never static, but rather evolve through a continuous process of cultural transmission and reinterpretation.