''Pietà'' is a tempera on panel painting by Cosmè Tura, measuring 47.7 cm by 33.5 cm. It is now in the

Museo Correr The Museo Correr () is a museum in Venice, northern Italy. Located in St. Mark's Square, Venice, it is one of the 11 civic museums run by the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia. The museum extends along the southside of the square on the upper ...

in Venice, to which it was left with the rest of the collection of Teodoro Correr on 1 January 1830. It was attributed to Luca d'Olanda until 1859, when Vincenzo Lazari recognised it as a work by Tura. By comparison with the same artist's ''Calliope'' and his Roverella Altarpiece, it has been dated to around 1460.

Description and style

The work presents a fairly classic iconography, that of Vesperbild, slightly revisited, where the dimension of pain is sublimated. Mary is seen seated on the edge of the vault, in the center of the composition, holding the body of her dead son; the Calvary is in the background. The pictorial quality is very high, in some points the underlying drawing made directly on the plaster layer is visible, it can be admired a wise use of lacquers and oil glazing. The work is rich in symbols and meanings, among these, the most curious is on the left of the viewer: in the corner, near a ruinous fall of color, you can see a monkey on the top of a tree that reminds of the inferior nature of man compared to the divine. Stylistically, therefore, it is fully in line with the Ferrarese painting of the late fifteenth century, between Nordic influences and the interpretation of the novelties brought by

Andrea Mantegna Andrea Mantegna (, , ; September 13, 1506) was an Italian painter, a student of Roman archeology, and son-in-law of Jacopo Bellini. Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with perspective, e.g. by lowering the horizon in order ...

in nearby

Padua Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

. Giovanni Mariacher, ''Il Museo Correr di Venezia, dipinti dal XIV al XVI Secolo'', Venezia, Neri Pozza, 1957.

References

Tura 1460s paintings Paintings by Cosmè Tura Collections of the Museo Correr {{15C-painting-stub