Michelangelo's Pieta 5450 cropncleaned edit

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 Our Lady of Sorrows ( la, Beata Maria Virgo Perdolens), Our Lady of Dolours, the Sorrowful Mother or Mother of Sorrows ( la, Mater Dolorosa, link=no), and Our Lady of Piety, Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows or Our Lady of the Seven Dolours are names ...

(Mother of Sorrows) and

Stabat Mater The Stabat Mater is a 13th-century Christian hymn to Mary, which portrays her suffering as Jesus Christ's mother during his crucifixion. Its author may be either the Franciscan friar Jacopone da Todi or Pope Innocent III.Sabatier, Paul ''Life o ...

(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 The Descent from the Cross ( el, Ἀποκαθήλωσις, ''Apokathelosis''), or Deposition of Christ, is the scene, as depicted in art, from the Gospels' accounts of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus taking Christ down from the cross after hi ...

and the Lamentation or Pietà form the 13th of the

Stations of the Cross The Stations of the Cross or the Way of the Cross, also known as the Way of Sorrows or the Via Crucis, refers to a series of images depicting Jesus Christ on the day of Crucifixion of Jesus, his crucifixion and accompanying prayers. The station ...

, as well as one of the

Seven Sorrows of the Virgin Our Lady of Sorrows ( la, Beata Maria Virgo Perdolens), Our Lady of Dolours, the Sorrowful Mother or Mother of Sorrows ( la, Mater Dolorosa, link=no), and Our Lady of Piety, Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows or Our Lady of the Seven Dolours are names ...

. Although the Pietà most often shows the Virgin Mary holding Jesus, there are other compositions, including those where

God the Father God the Father is a title given to God in Christianity. In mainstream trinitarian Christianity, God the Father is regarded as the first person of the Trinity, followed by the second person, God the Son Jesus Christ, and the third person, God t ...

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 Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...

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 Church of San Zaccaria Venice - bas-relief on the facade Cristoforo Solari (c. 1460–1527), also known as il Gobbo (''the hunchbacked''), was an Italian sculptor and architect. He was the brother of the painter Andrea Solari. Among his work, ...

, 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 Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to crucifixion of Jesus, his cru ...

, 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 Luis de Morales (1509 – 9 May 1586) was a Spanish painter active during the Spanish Renaissance in the 16th century. Known as "El Divino", most of his work was of religious subjects, including many representations of the Madonna and Child and ...

painted a number of highly emotional Pietàs, with examples in the Louvre and

Museo del Prado The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from the ...

Gallery

Statues, statuettes and paintings

File:Lamentation icon Nerezi MK.jpg, ''Pietà'' in frescoes found in the Church of St. Panteleimon,

Gorno Nerezi Gorno Nerezi (, sq, Nerez i Epërm) is a village in the municipality of Karpoš, North Macedonia. The settlement is situated at an altitude of 771 meters (2532 feet). It is located on the wooded slopes of Mt. Vodno, covers a 7 km radius ...

, 1164 File:Meister der Pietà von Avignon 004.jpg, The '' Avignon Pietà'',

Enguerrand Charonton Enguerrand Quarton (or Charonton) ( 1410 – 1466) was a French painter and manuscript illuminator whose few surviving works are among the first masterpieces of a distinctively French style, very different from either Italian or Early Netherla ...

, 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,

, 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 The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...

File:Pietro Perugino cat19.jpg, Pietro Perugino, Uffizi, 1490 File:Vesperbild Schwaben um 1500.jpg,

Swabia Swabia ; german: Schwaben , colloquially ''Schwabenland'' or ''Ländle''; archaic English also Suabia or Svebia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany. The name is ultimately derived from the medieval Duchy of ...

n painted wood ''Pietà'' of c. 1500 File:Accademia - Pietà Martinengo by Giovanni Bellini Cat.883.jpg,

Giovanni Bellini Giovanni Bellini (; c. 1430 – 26 November 1516) was an Italian Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters. He was raised in the household of Jacopo Bellini, formerly thought to have been his father ...

, c. 1505 File:DiefflerPietàL1010653 (2).JPG, Dieffler Pietà, Wooden sculpture, presumably 15th or 18th century, former chapel of St Wendelin in Diefflen,

Saarland Museum The Saarland Museum is an art museum in Saarbrücken, Saarland, Germany. It is spread across three sites, each with a different specialism. Museum in the Palace Church The Museum in the Palace Church (''Museum in der Schlosskirche'') special ...

, Old Collection File:Deposition of Christ C2RMF.jpg, ''

'',

Bronzino Agnolo di Cosimo (; 17 November 150323 November 1572), usually known as Bronzino ( it, Il Bronzino ) or Agnolo Bronzino, was an Italian Mannerist painter from Florence. His sobriquet, ''Bronzino'', may refer to his relatively dark skin or reddis ...

, 1540–1545, Musée de Besançon File:El Greco Pietà.jpg,

El Greco Domḗnikos Theotokópoulos ( el, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος ; 1 October 1541 7 April 1614), most widely known as El Greco ("The Greek"), was a Greek painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El G ...

, '' Pietà'', 1571–1576,

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...

File:Annibale Carracci 1560-1609 Pieta.jpg, ''Pietà'', c. 1600,

Annibale Carracci Annibale Carracci (; November 3, 1560 – July 15, 1609) was an Italian painter and instructor, active in Bologna and later in Rome. Along with his brother and cousin, Annibale was one of the progenitors, if not founders of a leading strand of th ...

, 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 Anton Josef Reiss, also Reiß (30 October 1835Anton Josef Reiss
In H ...

, 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 Our Lady of Purification Church also known as the Port Kollam Church is a historic Roman Catholic church near Kollam Port in Kollam district of Kerala. According to ecclesiastical tradition the church was established by Thomas the Apostle in 5 ...

's renowned Pieta is on exhibit. File:Liberty - panoramio (1) (cropped).jpg, West Bank Wall graffiti art: An interpretation of Pietà showing

Handala Handala ( ar, حنظلة, Ḥanẓala), also Handhala, Hanzala or Hanthala, is a prominent national symbol and personification of the Palestinian people. The character was created in 1969 by political cartoonist Naji al-Ali, and first took i ...

and Liberty

References

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
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pieta Christian terminology Italian words and phrases