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.
- By Frederic Edwin Church (American, 1826–1900)
- Dated 1879
- Rights: CC0
Terms
Culture
America
Medium
oil on canvas
Genre
Painting
Department
American Painting and Sculpture
Relations
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