Pietà (Christian art)

The Pietà (pronounced pee-EH-tah) is an artistic depiction of the deceased body of Jesus Christ being cradled in the arms of his mother, the Virgin Mary, after his crucifixion. Pietà means "the pity" or "the mercy" in Italian, and it is one of the most evocative forms of Christian imagery. Most typically, this subject is depicted through sculpture, although it has also been represented through other forms of art, including paintings, carvings, and church ornamentations. The best-known example of the Pietà in art is Michelangelo's Pietà, a large marble statue located at St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City.

Background

The Pietà is one of several recurring depictions of a grieving Virgin Mary in art. It is considered to be one of a collection of thematic subjects that show Mary's grief at the death of Jesus. Other representational examples of Mary's suffering include the Mater Dolorosa (meaning mother of sorrows), in which Mary's heart is being pierced by seven swords representing the emblematic seven sorrows of her life, and the Stabat Mater (the mother was standing), where Mary is shown standing under the crucified body of Jesus at the foot of the cross. Together, these thematic representations of Mary are considered to be artistic depictions of the Lamentation of Christ. This subject describes any work of art that shows Jesus being mourned by his followers after his death on the cross. The Lamentation of Christ is regarded as one of the emotional scenes from the biblical life of Christ.

The image of Mary cradling her son after his death is not one specifically found in the Bible. Instead, it represents a hypothetical aspect of the thirteenth of the fourteen stations of the cross. The stations of the cross are narrative images that portray the events surrounding Jesus's crucifixion around which Easter celebrations are centered. They are regarded as the culmination of the biblical story detailing the Passion of Jesus. These images begin with Jesus being condemned to death by Pontius Pilate and traditionally end with his body being placed into a rock tomb. The thirteenth station depicts Jesus being removed from the cross.

The origins of the idea of Mary holding Jesus's body as an aspect of the Passion may date to the fourth century. Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, for instance, describes Mary as receiving the corpse of her son and holding it in her arms. Other sources between the fourth and thirteenth centuries similarly describe a scene in which Mary holds the body of Jesus in her lap after his crucifixion.

Although the term Pietà is Italian, it was first developed as an aspect of wide devotional worship in thirteenth-century Germany. There it formed as a recurring thematic element of gothic art, particularly in the Thuringia/Franconia region of south-central Germany. The earliest known example is a wooden statue from Coberg, Germany, made in 1320. Marian devotion increasingly highlighted the role and importance of Mary in the Christian church's origins. In particular, such female thirteenth-century saints as Mechtilde of Hackeborn and Gertrude of Helfta have been credited with helping to promote increased devotion to Mary and the Pietà. Many of the early devotional objects from this period were constructed from wood.

Within a few decades, this thematic portrayal had been adopted for use by Orthodox churches in Spain and Russia, from which it spread to France and Italy. However, it remained as a relatively obscure presentation of Mary throughout parts of Europe until the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, during which time it saw greater use. In the following centuries, the Pietà became an important component of both Marian devotion and depictions of the crucifixion of Jesus.

Michelangelo's Pietà is perhaps the most famous example, although many other well-known versions exist, including paintings by Rogier van der Weyden (1441), El Greco (1576), and Titian (1576). Michelangelo later created an unfinished version of the Pietà called The Deposition (1555), in which he depicted himself as one of the figures holding the body of Jesus Christ. Michelangelo's Pietà was the only piece of art the master sculptor ever signed.

Overview

The Pietà is among the most copied and dynamic presentations of feminine emotion in Christian art. Many works of the Pietà highlight Mary's serenity and strength in the face of overwhelming tragedy. Although Mary's grief in such images is apparent—sometimes dramatically so—she is nonetheless intended to represent the power of faith. In the thirteenth century, Christian art placed renewed focus on Mary. She was often linked to the Passion of the Christ and Jesus's suffering on the cross. Mary was cast in artistic representations of the Passion as humanity's forgiving intercessor to God. She grieves but nonetheless serves as a symbol of mercy and love despite humanity's culpability in the death of her son.

The image of the Pietà was unusual in Renaissance sculpture in that it depicted multiple figures. Most sculptural works from this period were limited to a single person. Sculptures of the Pietà typically show Jesus with the five traditional wounds described in the biblical description of his crucifixion. These include two sets of holes in both his hands and feet from where they were nailed to the cross and the wound in the side of his abdomen from where a lance pierced his chest after death to make sure he was dead. Some depictions also show the scars on his forehead where the crown of thorns was placed upon his head and the scrapes on his knees from when he fell while carrying the cross.

In addition, sculptural images of the Pietà are often triangular in shape. These depictions show the Virgin Mary sitting while cradling the body of her son. In these portrayals, Mary is heavily draped in robes that disguise her figure and flow around her. In addition, the physical forms of Mary and Jesus in a Pietà image are often not proportional, with Mary deliberately carved as a comparatively larger figure. This was likely done so that Mary could be shown as gracefully supporting Jesus on her lap without losing the overall structural balance of the sculpture.

The Pietà is usually regarded as an intimate presentation of the vulnerability of both Jesus and Mary. To that end, Michelangelo elected to depict Mary as a young woman to emphasize her elegance, beauty, and purity as a holy virgin. Michelangelo similarly chose to deemphasize Jesus's wounds and instead highlight the inherent tragedy and sacrifice of the moment by presenting it as a scene of intense serenity and motherly devotion.

Bibliography

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