Anni - The Perfect Wisdom Web

a n n iinfinitely gentle, pure, moving, chaste. I have noticedwhen drawing how hard it is to express the gentleness ofline. In the Lübeck Cathedral there is a counterpart to thisMary, but this one here is by far the more beautiful. In thesacristy there is an early Gothic carved wooden altar. Thefaces on these figures are not at all realistic, but they are sofine–naïve or childlike, devoted –just out of the master’ssingleness of heart. They are very uncomplicated.Elsewhere in St. Mary’s there are many wooden carvings,in part quite roguish and sometimes a bit crude. TheLübeck Cathedral is from early Gothic times. It has heavy,ponderous arches and also has whitewashed bricks. Thefine thing about it is that the side naves in particular haveno ornamentation, so they get their effect simply by thevaults and the weight of their form. It gave me the feelingof firm quietness, but that behind it all there is somethingthat stands much higher and carries the whole. Here,too, there were late Gothic carved wooden figures, veryexpressive, and then a horrible Baroque altar.After dinner Irmgard and I went to the St. Peter’sChurch lookout tower. We had a fine view over thisentire Hanseatic city. It still gives a complete impressionof a Hanseatic city with its many pointed red roofs andhigh towers. There is something so dignified about it,intimate, yet serious and businesslike, without anythinghasty or nervous, but striving consciously toward a goal.We then slept one more night in Lübeck and went onto Hamburg the next morning. There we took a tour allaround the harbor. This was interesting at first, sincequite a number of big ships were lying at anchor. But30