"A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture everyday of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul."
- Johann Wolfgang Goethe
I have been obsessed with Philipp Otto Runge's Morning, ever since I first heard of it in a German Romanticism class. I think there was something about it that resonated with what I was familiar with in Islamic manuscript painting. The style and symmetry of Runge's composition, the expressive use of color and elements from nature, and especially the frame, all added to the similarities between the two traditions in my personal opinion. I should probably admit that most of these observations may be a bit cursory and although the painted frame reminiscent of Islamic illuminations is an integral part of the painting in Morning, it is interpreted in the Renaissance tradition, as validating this as a work of art or the open window to the world outside.
