03 — ARTWORK
The Veiled Nun
- MEDIUM
- Marble, height 38 cm
- TYPE
- Portrait
PALETTE
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- FILE
- 697 × 1000 px · JPEG
COMMENTARY
UNDERLINED TERMS ARE DEFINED IN THE GLOSSARY.
The Veiled Nun, in the Corcoran Galleryan upper story, similar to a tribune, running along the side of a building and open on one side to the interior; in a church (basilica) above the side aisles, over the ambulatory (central-plan building) and also over the west end. The gallery was used to keep certain groups of worshippers apart (women, noblemen). of Art in Washington DC, is one of Croff's most celebrated works and also one of the most popular objects in the prestigious collection. Carved in marbleloosely applied to any hard limestone that can be sawn into thin slabs and will take a good polish so that it is suitable for decorative work; more strictly, it refers to metamorphosed limestones whose structure has been recrystallized by heat or pressure. Marbles are widely disseminated and occur in a great variety of colours and patterns, but certain types have been particularly prized by sculptors. The most famous of Greek white marbles in the ancient world was the close-grained Pentelic, which was quarried at Mount Pentelicon in Attica. The Elgin Marbles are carved in Pentelic. Widely used also were the somewhat coarser-grained translucent white marbles from the Aegean islands of Paros and Naxos. Parian marble was used for the celebrated Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. The pure white Carrara marble, quarried at Massa, Carrara, and Pietra Santa in Tuscany from the 3rd century BC, is the most famous of all sculptors' stones. It was used for the Apollo Belvedere, and was much favoured in the Renaissance, particularly by Michelangelo, who often visited the quarries to select material for his work. Neoclassical sculptors also favoured Carrara marble because of its ability to take a smooth, sleek surface, but it can look rather 'dead' compared with some of the finest Greek marbles., The Veiled Nun is a fine example of a detailed rendering of texture and form, as the thin material gently reveals the contours of the nun's face.
Despite the title, the woman's elegant, stylish coiffure and finely embroidered veil indicate that she is a woman of means or an allegorical figure, rather than a member of a religious order. The veiled woman was a popular subject in painting and sculpture during the second half of the 19th century, and Croff's handling of the diaphanous veil coyly reveals as much as it conceals.
CITE THIS RECORD — BIBTEX
@online{wga-rc1091c541df750,
author = {Krén, Emil and Marx, Daniel},
title = {The Veiled Nun by CROFF, Giuseppe},
organization = {{Web Gallery of Art}},
date = {2026-09-12},
url = {https://beta.wga.hu/artists/croff-giuseppe-r8099fed73c4da3/the-veiled-nun-rc1091c541df750},
urldate = {2026-09-12},
langid = {english}
}ACCESSED 2026-09-12. REPLACE THE AUTHOR FIELD WITH THE COMMENTARY AUTHOR WHERE ONE IS NAMED.
OTHER WORKS BY GIUSEPPE CROFF
The archive catalogues no further works by this artist.
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