19th-Century Bavarian Monastery Work, Our Lady Of The Bowed Head

19th-Century Bavarian Monastery Work, Our Lady Of The Bowed HeadThis beautiful 19th century Bavarian monastery work depicts the Virgin Mary with head bowed. Its rendered in oils, with various embroidered embellishments, and bordered with enclosed relics. Often produced by nuns or monks, monastery works of this nature were intended as a form of spiritual practice, particularly in the Catholic regions of Europe, and often housed within churches or chapels. They take numerous forms including, as we see here, Our Lady

Signed/dated on the left and housed within a fine period frame decorated with grapevines

A wellhead: Mary is the water that the spirit needs to live

Sweden (for over 100 years)

and the St Leger Stakes

perhaps the innkeeper

Signed in the lower left and housed within an extensively ornate gilt frame with foliate

Fanny Cornforth

The canvas has recently been attached to a new stretcher and was probably left wrinkled for many years

Did you know: The name Finisterre is derived from the Latin ‘finis terrae’ - end of the Earth

Dow exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh and at the Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Art

upon perusing an eagerly assembled parcel of drawings

The painting was discussed by several Victorian art critics and we’ve published a selection of reviews in our directory