The large-size "Maria im Rosenhang" is part of a series of works by Anselm Kiefer that are occupied with the mystic picture of the Virgin Mary: "Mary was with me all through my adolescence, she played a large role in the days I grew up in. I remember the May devotions to the Blessed Virgin Mary. In May the altars are adorned with an abundance of flowers. The odor was enchanting. [..] I grew up with this sensual experience, it's part of my childhood, my past (Anselm Kiefer in an interview wiht Klaus Dermutz, in: Maria durch ein Dornwald ging, ex. cat. Galerie Ropac, Salzburg 2008, p. 15). The artist reports about a Marian apparition he had in his early youth. In our work and in all other works from this cycle Kiefer strives to examine fundamental questions of human existence: "We do not know where we come from and the meaning life has. Science can’tanswer these questions, either, only mythology can help us." The combination of word/letters, two-dimensional image spaces and materials with three-dimensional objects that overlay one another is characteristic of these works. In his compositions Kiefer integrates the beginning of the "Ave Maria“ with the words "Ave Maria, gratia plena / Dominus tecum / Benedicta tu in mulieribus“ and adds painted rose blossoms as a symbol of immaculacy and innocence overlayn with a thorny scrub. Our work is a prime and very personal example from the artist's creation.