In this painting Overbeck created a monument to his friend. From an arched Gothic window Pforr challenges the viewer with a penetrating but pious eye, as if asking: "Why have you not found the peace of piety?" His wife is deep in reverence... and the church tower provides an appropriate background. Pforr's sign, the cross over the skull, the vine tendrils, the watchful cat or falcon of hope, are all symbolically included. http://www.wga.hu/html_m/o/overbeck/p_pforr.html