<Weltenwald>

This monumental and highly symbolic work draws on the tradition of allegorical painting. In a dreamlike and tormented forest with romantic and surrealist echoes, Jörg Immendorff places a huge mirror in the foreground, reflecting a studio scene in grisaille. In the background, he paints a man from behind (most likely himself) with a globe for a head, as depicted in a 16th-century engraving. Flanked by the allegorical figures of the Vices and Virtues, the globe evokes the impermanence of the world. Despite this, the figure follows the path of wisdom, symbolised by the halo illuminating his path and the owl in the foreground.