The Monastery of San Pedro (Our Lady of the Snows)
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
118.8 × 183.2 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
American Painting and Sculpture
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Hinman B. Hurlbut Collection
Accession Number
1915.684
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
male
About this artwork
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.