Cyklus posmrtných podobizen abatyší kláštera františkánských terciářek v Brně

Over the course of the 17th and 18th centuries an extraordinary gallery was created in the Franciscan women's convent in Brno, a gallery that contains the portraits of the convent's abbesses. The sisters are not depicted in the manner that was customary for early-modern portrait series of abbots and abbesses. Rather, they are captured in death: a lifeless body in real-life dimensions lying on a bed, accompanied by attributes associated with death instead of the traditional insignia of the office. Fifteen of these full-body funeral portraits have survived to the present day – the first dating from 1646, and the last from 1776. The article presents this unusual series of portraits and describes aspects of the creation and function of these portraits.