CARLOTTA TAKES THE VEIL
The Taking of the Veil
ROBERT WEIR
1863

Shortly after arriving in Rome, the artist witnessed the scene described in the following newspaper account:

Early in the winter of 1826 great interest was exhibited among the nobility and foreign residents of Rome by the announcement that Carlotta, the young and beautiful daughter of the Lorenzana family, was about to enter her novitiate, preparatory to taking vows in the Ursuline convent. The ceremony attending this act, as is well known, is one of the most picturesque and affecting in the whole range of the Roman Catholic ritual, and when the subject of these holy vows is young and fair, and of high social position, the occasion is anticipated and attended with no ordinary emotions of curiosity and sympathy.

This event "made a strong impression" on Weir, who "carefully sketched it on the spot." He exhibited a sketch-of unnown medium of the subject at the National Academy of Design, New York, in 1832, but apparently did not undertake the larger composition until the 1850s and thought to be finished by October 1863. Weir was born and died in New York City.


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