| Featured prominently in the Corcoran’s opening exhibition on 19 January
1874, this exquisite sculpture is one of the museum’s best-known—and
best-loved—works of art. However, the refined and mysterious veiled woman
is most certainly not a nun. Traditionally, nuns were withdrawn from the material
world, anonymously dedicating their lives to Christ. Here we are offered a direct,
worldly, and quite sensuous—both in subject matter and handling of the
marble—portrait bust in the neoclassical tradition. The elegantly stylish
coiffure and the finely embroidered edge of her veil are indications that the
figure represents either a woman of means or an allegorical figure alluding to
grief or mourning. Whoever she is, she is distanced from us by her inward focus
as well as by the veil. Perhaps it is this personal aura of mystery, coupled
with the “foreignness” of veiled figures for American audiences,
that led early visitors to refer to her as a nun. . . .
, |
Text excerpted from A Capital Collection: Masterworks from
the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
:: Purchase A Capital Collection online
:: The Curator's Journals Project
:: View
more European Art |
