Home / Our Story / Our history / The Painted Life of Mary Ward

The Painted Life

The Painted Life is a cycle of 50 oil-on-canvas paintings depicting the spirituality of Mary Ward. The paintings are currently displayed in the Congregatio Jesu school, Augsburg, Germany. It is thought two paintings were created during Mary Ward’s lifetime and the remainder were completed in the years following her death c. 1660.

There are no surviving documents that record the circumstances of the commissioning of The Painted Life. The cycle of paintings is attributed to artists who worked in Northern Europe “between Flanders and the Tyrol.” From Wetter, “Tenth Letter of Instruction,” p. III. As many as five different artists are thought to have contributed, none of whom have been identified. The inscriptions, in German, were added at the end of the seventeenth century. The text is attributed to a German Jesuit, Fr Tobias Lohner.

The Painted Life cycle is available below in gallery format. A guide to the historical background and meaning of each painting is being developed by Dr Claire Renkin and Angela Slattery ibvm.

If used in publication please acknowledge
© Geistliches Zentrum Maria Ward Augsburg, Foto Tanner, Nesselwang
Bibliography