
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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