Teach with Collections: Pietà

A new subject beginning in the fourteenth century, the Pietà (Italian for “pity”) represents the Virgin Mary holding her dead son, Jesus, in her lap. This scene is not found in the Gospels but was one of a number of new themes in Christian art intended to encourage meditation, convey pathos, and provoke a profound emotional response in the viewer. Adding to its emotional immediacy, it echoes images of the Virgin cradling her child. The development of the Pietà parallels the rise in mystical literature of the time and responds to individual aspirations for a personal relationship with God. Conversation prompts: Consider the subtractive medium of wood carving compared to the subtractive medium of stone carving. What naturalistic details do you notice in the carving of Jesus’s dead body? What effect do these have on the viewer? How do you read the relationship between Mary and Jesus through the positioning of their bodies?