The masterpiece of Robert Walter Weir's maturity, this scene depicts the consecration of a novice into the Catholic church, a scene witnessed by the artist decades earlier in Rome in the Church of San Guiseppe. Dressed in a white wedding gown, the young woman kneels before the bishop and bows her head to receive the chaplet, a symbol of purity, while her mother, in red, nods consent. Although Roman Catholic ritual was a mystery to many Americans at the time, Weir's message of solemn spiritual commitment transcended the Catholic ceremony. A professor of art at West Point known primarily as a history painter, Weir was also the period's leading American painter of religious themes.