A Memorial to the ‘Good Countess’ - The ‘Votive Painting Vargemont’ by Johann Evangelist Scheffer von Leonhardshoff

One of the most important works by Johann Scheffer Evangelist von Leonhardshoff is his Votive Painting Vargemont. In this commemorative picture the artist combines the subject of the seven works of mercy with a bourgeois genre motif to create a memorial to the deceased Sophie von Vargemont. This essay addresses whether the treatment of this subject was traditional. It also looks at the painting in the context of the custom of memorial pictures and sculptures.