The Monastery of San Pedro (Our Lady of the Snows)

JPG • 3400 × 2186 PX • 2.4 MB
Curatorial Notes

Although the location that inspired the painting has been subject to scholarly debate, many believe it derives from Church’s travels through the Ecuadorean Andes nearly a quarter century earlier. The composition reads as an allegory of spiritual salvation: perched atop a dramatic cliff, a brilliantly backlit monastery overlooks a shadowed foreground where a solitary figure navigates a rugged path.

Artwork Identification

Title The Monastery of San Pedro (Our Lady of the Snows)
Title (PT) O Mosteiro de São Pedro (Nossa Senhora das Neves)
Title (ES) El Monasterio de San Pedro (Nuestra Señora de las Nieves)
Artist Frederic Edwin Church
Artist Bio Frederic Edwin Church (American, 1826–1900)
Date 1879
Work Type Painting

Location & Collection

License Creative Commons Public Domain Mark 1.0
Ars Sancta