Twee boothuizen en een schuur met waterrad 1823

This print, created by Max Josef Wagenbauer, shows three buildings: boat houses and a shed with a water wheel. Notice the motif of the roof, replicated across the three scenes. In the upper two boat houses, the roof is incomplete, which recurs in the crumbling shed with a waterwheel in the lower panel. The broken roof, seen here in 19th century Germany, reminds me of the broken column that was a frequent symbol in Ancient Roman art. The column signified loss, be that of life, of power, or of an era. Here, this symbol has mutated, resurfacing not in the depiction of a pillar, but in a roof, carrying forward that original sense of loss and decay into the present. The cyclical progression of symbols is never-ending, moving and shifting through time, as the roofs of buildings are repaired and crumble, again and again.