Pietà

The Pietà (; meaning " pity", "compassion") is a subject in Christian art depicting the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus after his body was removed from the cross. It is most often found in sculpture. The Pietà is a specific form of the Lamentation of Christ in which Jesus is mourned by the Virgin Mary alone.

Context and development

Pietà is one of the three common artistic representations of a sorrowful Virgin Mary, the other two being Mater Dolorosa (Mother of Sorrows) and Stabat Mater (the mother was standing). The other two representations are most commonly found in paintings, rather than sculpture, although combined forms exist.

The Pietà developed in Germany (where it is called the "Vesperbild") about 1300, reached Italy about 1400, and was especially popular in Central European Andachtsbilder. Many German and Polish 15th-century examples in wood greatly emphasise Christ's wounds. The Deposition of Christ and the Lamentation or Pietà form the 13th of the Stations of the Cross, as well as one of the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin.

Although the Pietà most often shows the Virgin Mary holding Jesus, there are other compositions, including those where God the Father participates in holding Jesus (see gallery below). In Spain the Virgin often holds up one or both hands, sometimes with Christ's body slumped to the floor.

Michelangelo

A famous example by Michelangelo was carved from a block of marble and is located in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City. The body of Christ is different from most earlier Pietà statues, which were usually smaller and in wood. The Virgin is also unusually youthful, and in repose, rather than the older, sorrowing Mary of most Pietàs. She is shown as youthful for two reasons; God is the source of all beauty and she is one of the closest to God, also the exterior is thought as the revelation of the interior (the virgin is morally beautiful). Michelangelo's Pieta sculpture is also unique in the fact that it is the only one of his works that he ever signed. Upon hearing that visitors thought it had been sculpted by Cristoforo Solari, a competitor. His signature is carved as ''MICHAELA ELUS BONAROTUS FLORENTIN SFACIEBA ' "Michelangelo Buonarroti the Florentine did it".

In a lesser known Michelangelo Pietà, '' The Deposition'' (c. 1547–1555), it is not the Virgin Mary who is holding Jesus' body, but rather Nicodemus (or possibly Joseph of Arimathea), Mary Magdalene, and the Virgin Mary. There is some indication that the man in the hood is based on a self-portrait of the artist. The sculpture is housed in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in Florence and is also known as the ''Florentine Pietà''.

A generation later, the Spanish painter Luis de Morales painted a number of highly emotional Pietàs, with examples in the Louvre and Museo del Prado.

Gallery

Statues, statuettes and paintings

File:Lamentation icon Nerezi MK.jpg, ''Pietà'' in frescoes found in the Church of St. Panteleimon, Gorno Nerezi, 1164
File:Meister der Pietà von Avignon 004.jpg, The '' Avignon Pietà'', Enguerrand Charonton, 15th century
File:Köln st severin pieta.jpg, 15th-century German wood ''Pietà'' from Cologne
File:Jean Malouel - Large Round Pietà - WGA13901.jpg, Pieta Tondo by Jean Malouel, between 1400 and 1410 ( Louvre)
File:Jean malouel (attr.), grande pietà rotonda, 1400 ca. 03.JPG, Jean Malouel, Pieta Tondo, detail
File:Museo diocesano di klagenfurt, pietà, 1420 circa, da st. michael am zollfeld.JPG, Austrian ''Pietà'', c. 1420
File:Van-der-Weyden-Pieta.jpg, Rogier van der Weyden, Museo del Prado, Madrid, with Saint John and a donor, c. 1440-1450
File:Kraków Pietà of Tubądzin.jpg, Kraków, c. 1450
File:German or Netherlandish 15th Century, Pietà, c. 1450-1500, NGA 3155.jpg, German or Netherlandish 15th Century, ''Pietà'', c. 1450–1500, National Gallery of Art
File:Pietro Perugino cat19.jpg, Pietro Perugino, Uffizi, 1490
File:Vesperbild Schwaben um 1500.jpg, Swabian painted wood ''Pietà'' of c. 1500
File:Accademia - Pietà Martinengo by Giovanni Bellini Cat.883.jpg, Giovanni Bellini, c. 1505
File:DiefflerPietàL1010653 (2).JPG, Dieffler Pietà, Wooden sculpture, presumably 15th or 18th century, former chapel of St Wendelin in Diefflen, Saarland Museum, Old Collection
File:Deposition of Christ C2RMF.jpg, '' Deposition of Christ'', Bronzino, 1540–1545, Musée de Besançon
File:El Greco Pietà.jpg, El Greco, '' Pietà'', 1571–1576, Philadelphia Museum of Art
File:Annibale Carracci 1560-1609 Pieta.jpg, ''Pietà'', c. 1600, Annibale Carracci, National Museum of Capodimonte
File:Gregorio Fernandez-Piedad.jpg, '' Pietà'' by Gregorio Fernández, 1616–1619, National Sculpture Museum,
File:Andechs Kloster interior 027.JPG, 18th-century Bavarian example with Rococo setting
File:A Pietà by Michelangelo, in the Galleria dell'Accademia.jpg, The Palestrina Pietà originally attributed to Michelangelo but probably by another sculptor
File:William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) - Pieta (1876).jpg, ''Pieta'', 1876, William-Adolphe Bouguereau
File:Pieta, St. Gereon Basilica.jpg, A Pietà in marble by Anton Josef Reiss, 1897
File:(Albi) Collégiale Saint-Salvi - Pietà dite Mater Dolorosa - Chapelle de la déploration du Christ PalissyIM81001576.jpg, Vierge de Pitié, Déploration at Collégiale Saint-Salvi d'Albi, Albi, around 1900
File:Pieta. Bogdan Cierpisz.jpg, Bogdan Cierpisz, Pieta, c. 1980
File:Port Kollam Church's renowned pieta.jpg, Every year on Good Friday, Port Kollam Church's renowned Pieta is on exhibit.
File:Liberty - panoramio (1) (cropped).jpg, West Bank Wall graffiti art: An interpretation of Pietà showing Handala and Liberty

See also

* ''Pietà'' (Michelangelo)
* Replicas of Michelangelo's ''Pietà''

References

Further reading

*

External links

Data collection of the image type Pietà in sculpture

3D model of a detail of Mary from a cast made by the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the Vatican Museums, via photogrammetric survey

Poem by Moez Surani proposing nine new sculptural Pietas

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Christian terminology
Italian words and phrases