Female Roman Pilgrim, 1877

In paintings of the Romantic period, the motif of the pilgrim played an important role alongside that of the monk and the hermit. While many depictions of pilgrims were initially religiously inspired, idyllic motifs became increasingly popular over the course of the 19th century. These included Gustav Adolf Kuntz's famous “Roman Pilgrim” of 1877, in which the young woman at the center of the genre painting kisses the foot of a wooden figure of Jesus on a cross. There is no religious message to be found in this depiction; the figure of the female pilgrim is depicted solely for its picturesqueness.

Römische Pilgerin, oil on canvas, 1877, artist: Gustav Kuntz (1843–1879), photographer: Andres Kilger; source: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie, https://id.smb.museum/object/965056, Public Domain Mark 1.0, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/deed.de.