Hermann Parzinger on Tragedy and Beauty in Caspar David Friedrich’s ‘Abbey in the Oakwood’

I stroll over to the side of the temple to examine the relief carvings. I find the pharaoh—he’s not hard to spot—wearing the dual crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt. I wonder who among my fellow onlookers knows that there’s something strange about this particular pharaoh. It isn’t his profile or regalia; those are conventional enough. It’s his name,

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