"The Scream," by Edvard Munch, 1893, tempera on board, 83.5 x 66 cm, M514 from the Munch Museum in Oslo: The Scream has come more and more to be accepted as Edvard Munch's most significant motif - the very symbol of modern man, for whom God is dead and for whom materialism provides no solace. Munch wrote several versions of a prose-lyrical associated with the motif, one of which reads: I was walking along a path with two friends - the sun was setting - suddenly the sky turned blood red - I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence - there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city - my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety - and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature.