This beautiful 19th-century Bavarian monastery work depicts the Virgin Mary with head bowed. It’s 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 of the Bowed Head’. This iconic devotional image has interesting origins as it relates to a discarded oil painting, which, upon being restored in 1610 by the Venerable Dominic of Jesus and Mary, began nodding in gratitude. Dominic subsequently had a prayer answered.

This particular homage is distinctly unusual due to the apparent relics which surround the Virgin. Each has an associated name, carefully written in ink, which possibly corresponds to Saints. One can only imagine how long it took.

Housed in a period frame.

Medium: Oil on canvas laid on fabric with embroidery and relics.
Overall size: 9½” x 12” / 24cm x 30cm
Year of creation: c. 1850
Provenance: Private collection, UK.
Condition: Various age-related areas of discolouration. Minor craquelure on the oil painting itself, as you would expect. Frame with various marks and showing its age.
Our reference: BRV2181