The Pietà (; meaning "pity", "compassion") is a subject in Christian art depicting the Blessed Virgin Mary cradling the mortal body of Jesus Christ after his Descent 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. However, in practice works called a Pietà may include angels, the other figures usual in Lamentations, and even .[Murray, Peter and Linda, The Oxford Companion to Christian Art and Architecture, p. 391, 1996, OUP, ]
An image consisting only of a dead Christ with angels is also called a Pietà, at least in German, where Engelpietà (literally "Angel Pietà") is the term for what is usually called Dead Christ supported by angels in English.[RDK, and Christ mort soutenu par des anges in French; Cristo morto sorretto da angeli in Italian.]
Several namesake images have merited a Pontifical decree of coronation, including the Pieta of Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome, in the Marienthal Basilica in France, the Franciscan church in Leuven, Belgium, at the Kamp-Bornhofen, Germany, and Our Lady of Charity in Cartagena, Spain.
Context and development
The Pietà is one of the three common artistic representations of a sorrowful Virgin Mary, the other two being the
Mater Dolorosa ("dolorous mother") and the
Stabat Mater ("standing mother").
[Arthur de Bles, 2004 How to Distinguish the Saints in Art by Their Costumes, Symbols and Attributes page 35][Anna Jameson, 2006 Legends of the Madonna: as represented in the fine arts page 37] The other two representations are most commonly found in paintings, rather than sculpture, although combined forms exist.
[E.g. see Noël Quillerier's at Oratorio della Nunziatella]
The Pietà developed in Germany (where it is called Vesperbild) about 1300, reached Italy about 1400, and was especially popular in Central European Andachtsbilder.[G. Schiller, Iconography of Christian Art, Vol. II, 1972, Lund Humphries, London, pp. 179–181, figs 622–39, ] Many German and Polish 15th-century examples in wood greatly emphasise Christ's wounds. Although the subject was known in Italy, the name may have been slower to be adopted, and the Florence diarist Luca Landucci, after describing a painting in an entry for June 1482, added "which is called by some a Pietà".[Murrays, 391]
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 Christ. 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 the Italian sculptor
Michelangelo in marble is in Saint 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, and because the exterior is thought as the revelation of the interior; therefore, 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, he carved his signature into Mary's sash as "MICHAELANGELUS BONAROTUS FLORENTINUS FACIEBAT": "Michelangelo Buonarroti the Florentine made this".
[William E. Wallace, 1995 Life and Early Works (Michelangelo: Selected Scholarship in English) page 233]
In a lesser known Michelangelo Pietà, The Deposition (), it is not the Virgin Mary who is holding Christ's 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.
A generation later, the Spanish painter Luis de Morales painted a number of highly emotional Pietàs, with examples in the Louvre and italic=no.
Dead Christ supported by angels
This related subject is called
Engelpietà (literally "Angel Pietà") in German, and included here for that reason. It is a variant of the
Man of Sorrows (
Imago Pietatis) type of andachtsbilder, but showing a Christ who is clearly dead (in
Man of Sorrows images he tends to have his eyes open). Typically the half-length body of the dead Christ sits on a ledge, held up by smaller angels at each side. Christ is naked down to a loin-cloth and his wounds are visible. But there are many variants of this composition, especially after about 1500. It was common in both sculpture and painting from the 14th century until the Counter Reformation, but found through the Baroque period as well.
[RDK]
Comic book art and popular culture
The iconography of Piéta, with a figure holding a body in their arms, has been regularly used in comic book art, especially on covers.
One of the most famous examples is the cover for Crisis on Infinite Earths #7, which features the death of
Supergirl.
Lana Del Rey's 2012 music video Born to Die features the scene of a man holding the corpse of the singer in a Piéta-like pose.
St. Vincent's song Pietà references her father holding her in a Holiday Inn pool for her baptism "like an inverse-Piéta". This song was released on the St. Vincent (album) deluxe edition.
The ending to John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath is often interpreted to symbolize a pietà, with Rose of Sharon cradling a dying old man.
Image gallery
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:Museo diocesano di klagenfurt, pietà, 1420 circa, da st. michael am zollfeld.JPG|Austrian Pietà,
File:Pietà - Abside dell'Oratorio di Santa Maria - Garbagna Novarese.jpg|Pietà at Oratorio di Santa Maria, Garbagna Nov. (Italy), early 15th century
File:Van-der-Weyden-Pieta.jpg|Rogier van der Weyden, italic=no, Madrid, with Saint John and a donor, -1450
File:Kraków Pietà of Tubądzin.jpg|Kraków,
File:German or Netherlandish 15th Century, Pietà, c. 1450-1500, NGA 3155.jpg|German or Netherlandish 15th Century, Pietà, –1500, National Gallery of Art
File:Pietro Perugino cat19.jpg|Pietro Perugino, Uffizi, 1490
File:Vesperbild Schwaben um 1500.jpg| 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: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, painted wood for a processional float
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
See also
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List of statues of Jesus
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Pietà (Michelangelo)
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Replicas of Michelangelo's Pietà
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"RDK" "Engelpietà" by Osten, Gert von der, in the online Reallexikon zur Deutschen Kunstgeschichte (in print: Vol. V (1960), pp. 601–621)
Further reading
External links
